I was early getting over to where the Whitney Museum is, and when I got off the subway and walked to the Hudson river on14th street I was too far north because the Whitney is 3 streets south of 14th. Lo and behold there was the "Little Island" which I had heard about. It is a new man-made island in the Hudson river. It is made up of 132 concrete pylons which are called "tulips." On top of the pylons which vary a great deal in height, there is a whole landscaped park.
This is a closeup of the tops of the tulips. The pilings that they are mounted on go almost 200 feet into the riverbed of the Hudson River. The hight of the tulips ranges from 15 feet to 62 feet above the river level.
You can get to the island on two different footbridges, one of which is in the foreground of this photograph, and you can also see a bit of the plantings on the tulips on the other side of the bridge. Little Island was designed by Heatherwick Studio of London and largely funded by Barry Diller and Diane von Fürstenberg, who committed to donate $260 million, with some funding from the New York City and state governments. It is stated to be the largest donation to a public park in city history. I can't wait to come back and actually set foot on the island.
Very interesting. Maybe in the spring, Betsey and i should take a train into the city and meet up with you. Hard to imagine the expense of constructing Little Island.
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I was so excited to see this photo this morning. I wrote it down as a "Road Trip". It looks so cool! It is wonderful that the funds were donated to create this free park. Joan and I will definitely have to join you to see this...betsey
ReplyDeleteThat's a plan! And it will be easier this time, because when you come, the new LIRR station inside Grand Central Station makes my trip easier, and then we will take the subway up to the E train and then take that down to 14th street to see the Little Island AND THEN we will be at the south end of the High Line! How cool is that!
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