Planning & Construction

This is an exciting time for Hudson River Park. The State approved $21 million in capital funding for the park, and the City has promised to match this amount, making 2008 the peak construction year in the project's history. Construction is underway at five park piers. A brand new park section in Tribeca opened in Spring 2008 and Pier 64 in Chelsea, including upland park to Pier 66, opened in Spring 2009. Currently, approximately 50% of the overall park is complete. With continued adequate funding, we hope to reach the 80% milestone by the end of 2009.

Ultimately, the five-mile area from Battery Place to 59th Street will share a number of common design elements (such as railing, lighting and esplanade treatments) to help create a signature, unified identity for the overall park. Recognizing that each of the neighborhoods bordering the park has a distinctive look and personality, the Trust has selected different designers for each geographic area or "segment." This approach will provide for diverse landscape and recreational experiences throughout the park, not to mention uniquely designed playgrounds, art, boathouses, historic interpretive installations, and other park elements.

Hudson River Park Trust staff and the architects, landscape architects and engineers selected to design each park met with local community members over a several month period to establish the specific program for the piers and upland areas in each community.  In the south, Segments 2/3 (Lower Manhattan and Tribeca) were designed by Sasaki Associates, followed by Mathews Nielsen; Segment 4 (Greenwich Village) by Abel Bainnson Butz; Segment 5 (Chelsea) by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; and Segments 6/7  (Midtown and Clinton) by Richard Dattner Architects/Miceli Kulik Williams Joint Venture.

Construction in Greenwich Village, the first section completed, began in 1999 on the upland and in 2000 on the piers.  Greenwich Village was followed by Clinton ‘Cove’ in 2005 and then Piers 66 and 84 in 2006, along with the upland area from W. 26th St. to W. 29th Street.  During this time, the Trust also completed the Courtyard Ballfields in Pier 40 and the Chelsea Waterside Playground.  Prior to 2000, New York State Department of Transportation, which had built the five mile bikeway adjacent to Hudson River Park, also constructed two parks on the east side of the new Route 9A boulevard - 14th St. Park and Chelsea Waterside Park – which were then legally transferred to the Trust by the Hudson River Park Act.