Construction update: Pier 55’s 535 concrete columns rise from the Hudson River
Current view of Pier55 site, via 6sqft
Now that the Barry Diller-funded Pier 55 offshore park can proceed freely, the Wall Street Journal took a look at how construction is progressing on the $200 million project. Currently, the 535 concrete columns, each three feet wide and ranging from 70 to 200 feet long, that will support the 2.75-acre park have been erected, poking out of the Hudson River amidst the historic wooden piles that once supported Pier 54, where the Titanic was supposed to dock (these will remain to sustain marine life development). On top of them will be pots, “hollow pentagonal forms” that weigh as much as 60 tons and will be “linked with concrete to create a rectangular platform of about 104,000 square feet.”
The platform, sitting 62 feet above the water, will hold about 12,540 cubic yards of soil, where 400 species of plants will grow, according to Signe Nielsen, the landscape architect for the project who is working with designer Thomas Heatherwick. There will be 115 trees, including 24 that will be as tall as 40 feet and 40 or 50 evergreens. There will also be shrubes, vines, perennials, all of which will be organized by a “bloom sweep,” or similarly colored groups of plants that will change seasonally. Neilson also referred to the firm’s “chutes and laddres strategy,” a series of winding and sloping paths and stairways that run throughout the park.
Other new details are that there will be two access ways from West 13th and 14th Streets, a sound barrier of hills and plantings surrounding the 750-seat amphitheater, and all indoor spaces (including 18 bathrooms) will be located within the hillsides or under the platform.
[Via WSJ]
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