P ier 55
Following a design competition the Hudson River Park Trust
and businessman and philanthropist Barry Diller appointed
Heatherwick Studio to build a new pier on Manhattan’s
southwest riverside. The pier needed to be both a public park
and a world class outdoor performance space.
the landscape to give the audience better views.
The resulting design developed as a system of repeating
piles which each form a generous planter at their top. Every
planter then connects in a tessellating pattern at different
heights to create a single manipulated piece of landscape.
Interested in the hundreds of old wooden piles which stuck More than a hundred different species of indigenous trees
out of the Hudson River as the structural remains of the old and plants suited to the harsh extremes of New York climate
piers that had previously existed, the studio wondered if will be planted within the thousands of tonnes of new soil of
the identity of the new pier could come from focusing on its this landscape.
structural piles.
The result is a unique topography that can be experienced
The idea evolved to take the new concrete piles that would as you walk underneath to enter, as well as above as the 280
be needed and to continue them out of the water, extending piles rise up out of the water.
skyward to raise up sections of a green landscape. Fusing as
they meet, these individual piles come together to form the
topography of the park.
As well as being a beautifully landscaped public park, the
new pier will be a hardworking object that contains an
outdoor theatre for over 700 people, a smaller performance
Raising the new piece of park up into the air could not only space for 200, a main space for 3,500 and many pathways
counteract the windswept quality of the big adjacent road and viewing platform.
but also work well with the need for outdoor theatre and
performance spaces, as ranked seating could be shaped into
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Landscape & Urban Design Issue 34 2018
www.heatherwick.co