BY ALBERT AMATEAU | Pier55, the daring project announced last month by the Hudson River Park Trust and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, made its public debut on Dec. 3.
The $130 million project drew reactions last week ranging from awe to outrage during a presentation at the meeting of the Community Board 2 Parks Committee.
The new pier, conceived as a square island between the historic Pier 54, which is to be demolished, and the pile field that remains from the old Pier 56, would have two separate connections to the Hudson River Park shoreline.
The landscaped surface would rise from the 6.5-foot level of the shoreline to 14.5 feet — above the new floodplain level — and undulate to a highpoint, a 71.5-foot-tall promontory at the southwest corner. The 2.7-acre pier would have an amphitheater at its western side with seating for about 700, plus a great lawn and a plaza that could serve as informal performance spaces accommodating a total of about 5,000 people.
Madelyn Wils, the Trust’s president and C.E.O., told the audience last week that New York City is contributing $17 million to the project funded by Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg. The city contribution will go toward the infrastructure of Pier55, including the piles. A separate but related $18 million project, funded by New York State, calls for widening the Hudson River Park esplanade between Gansevoort Peninsula and W. 14th St.
George C. Wolfe, who directed and produced the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park with the late Joe Papp for many years, is a member of the board of Pier55, Inc., the nonprofit entity created to build and operate the pier. Kate Horton, former director of the U.K.’s National Theatre, is executive director of the project. Both Wolfe and Horton will be in charge of producing programs.
“I’m a great believer in the ability of the arts to bring people together,” Horton said last week. The plan is to have free or low-cost events, with $10 or $20 as top ticket prices, Horton said. She added that the design of the three-sided amphitheater will allow everyone in the audience to see the expressions on the actors’ faces.
“I want to create a sense of community and involvement,” Wolfe said. “I want to form connections with local artists and explore working with local schools and having young people serve as interns,” he added.
Community board members and Village neighbors posed anxious questions during the public comment period of the presentation last week. Some wondered whether funds spent on Pier55 would take away from completion of the entire riverfront park, which is now 70 percent complete. There was also concern that the sound of noisy events on the pier would carry into the neighborhood. Financial guarantees and cost overruns were still other concerns.
Tobi Bergman, incoming chairperson of Community Board 2, said he was not worried that Pier55 might halt the completion of the entire park.
“The project will make completion of the park inevitable,” Bergman said. “My big concern is democracy. Free is not necessarily democratic.”
He said that tickets should be available to neighbors as well as tourists.
“We need something for everybody,” he said.
Bunny Gabel, a Jane St. resident since 1961, asked, “What would Jane Jacobs say if she were here?” and said the proposed Pier55 was “a billionaire’s island?”
“It is a waste of public money needed elsewhere and it’s yet another example of how the big bucks are taking away our beloved community,” she added.
Gabel contended that the project was illegal under the Clean Water Act. But David Paget, the Trust’s environmental lawyer, replied that everything in the project was legal. He added that the Clean Water Act prohibition applied to projects on landfill, not piers.
Marcy Benstock, who led the successful fight 30 years ago to block the $2 billion Westway landfill project — whose replacement was the Hudson River Park — also spoke against Pier55. She noted that the Army Corps of Engineers must approve the project and urged that the corps deny permits for the new pier.
Benstock denounced the spending of more than $30 million in city and state money on the project. She also raised the specter of a major hurricane.
“Is it right to put 5,000 people on an island in a hurricane?” she asked. “Katrina picked up projects like this and hurled them inland.”
Zack Winestine, a Horatio St. resident, recalled that in the past, Pier 54 had thousands of people attending rock concerts during which noise spilled out into the neighborhood.
“How many concerts will there be?” he asked. “And will there have to be big-ticket concerts?”
Winestine also charged that the Pier55 project was marked by “an undemocratic lack of public discussion.”
“The decisions will be made by Mr. Diller,” he said. “What’s to stop Mr. Diller from saying after five years that it’s too expensive and too much trouble?”
Horton replied, “This is not really attractive to anyone who wants to run a rock concert. It’s too small.”
Wolfe agreed, saying, “Everything will be in human proportions. We don’t want to tailor the space to fit the performance. The performers will have to make sure they fit into the space.”
Geoffrey Croft, president and founder of NYC Park Advocates, also protested what he said was a surprise sprung on an unsuspecting neighborhood.
“There has been absolutely no public process,” he said.
“This is the beginning of the process,” Wils replied.
She assured those at the meeting that the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation would cover cost overruns on the new pier. A 165-page lease agreement between Pier55, Inc. and the Trust pledges the funds for the pier’s construction and for its maintenance and operation for the life of the 20-year lease, with an optional 10-year renewal.
The agreement also provides for mooring a 4,000-square-foot barge off the west side of the pier for six months of the year if an especially large theatrical production is programmed. Wils said the lease sets the limits of what could happen on the pier and not everything that the lease provides would be done.
Under the Hudson River Park Act, only commercial piers in the park are required to involve the six-month-long New York City Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). On the other hand, the proposed Pier55 — a pier designated for recreational park use — is exempt from ULURP but must follow a parallel process under the Trust that is required for “significant changes” in the park.
A 200-page environmental assessment for the project has been filed, covering everything from the pier’s impact on marine wildlife to noise and blocking of view corridors to the river.
In addition to the Dec. 3 presentation, the C.B. 2 Parks Committee will hold another Pier55 hearing on Jan. 7, and then report its findings and suggest changes to the full board of C.B. 2, which will review the project at its Jan. 22 meeting and issue recommendations in the form of a resolution.
For its part, the Trust will hold a mandated hearing on the project on Mon., Jan. 12, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, at N.Y.U. Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, fourth floor. (ID is required to enter the facility.)
The period for submitting written comments to the Trust about the Pier55 project ends Fri., Jan. 23. The Trust’s hearing had previously been scheduled for Dec. 17. But, according to Bergman, C.B. 2 requested that the date be moved back to allow the full board to weigh in beforehand at its Jan. 22 meeting, and the Trust complied.
Construction is expected to begin on widening the park esplanade in summer 2015. Construction on the pier is tentatively scheduled to begin in summer 2016. The opening of Pier55 could be in 2019.
