Little Island designed to create "the feeling of leaving Manhattan behind" says Thomas Heatherwick
The elevated topography of Little Island was designed to create a sense of escape from Manhattan, according to designer Thomas Heatherwick in this interview with Dezeen.
Designed in partnership with global engineering firm Arup and landscape architects MNLA, Little Island rests on 132 concrete columns over the Hudson River near New York City's Meatpacking District. It opened to the public last week.
Thomas Heatherwick designed Little Island. Photo courtesy of Heatherwick Studio
Heatherwick was originally asked to design a pavilion for a traditional flat pier, but his studio pitched the idea for an undulating island away from the mainland.
By building a park out over the Hudson, accessible only by gangplank-style bridges, Heatherwick hopes visitors can experience "the feeling of actually leaving Manhattan behind".
"[It's] somewhere that would give a sort of emotional permission to look back at New York from somewhere other than New York," he told Dezeen.
Little Island is located on the Hudson River near New York City's Meatpacking District
Originally called Pier 55, the park sits near the remains of Pier 54. The historic structure, where survivors of the Titanic disembarked in 1912, is now reduced to clusters of wooden piles sticking out of the water.
Little Island's design was informed by "ghost piers" such as this, according to Heatherwick.
"Normally there's a lid put over them," he said. "The reason that the old piers are interesting is that they've had the lid lifted away and that exposes these piles."
Little Island's forest of concrete columns pays homage to these structures by making a feature out of its undergirding, Heatherwick said.
"We let the piles that we need to have become the containers for the earth and plant material," he explained. "It was our version of minimalism, to not add another ingredient, we just focus on that one ingredient."
Little Island design altered after Hurricane Sandy
According to Heatherwick, Little Island was originally going to be built closer to the water.
However, the design was altered after Heatherwick and his team presented early designs for the structure on the day in 2012 that Hurricane Sandy hit New York, engulfing parts of the city in a deadly storm surge.
"As we walked out for the presentation, the wind was growing, the rain was increasing," Heatherwick recalled. "That night, the flooding really kicked in and did further damage to Pier 54, which was where it was originally planned for the project to go."
"It gave an extra mandate to strengthen any new structure being built extremely sturdily and lifting it that bit further from the water level to ensure that its chances of being flooded are hugely reduced," he added.
The park rests on 132 concrete columns
Little Island was raised around 13 feet (four metres) further above the waterline in response, Heatherwick estimates. The design team embraced this change, he said, exaggerating the elevation to capitalise on the sense of separation from the mainland.
"Who wants to be on a bigger bit of Manhattan when you can go to another place instead?" he asked.
"By lifting the piles up to create a three-dimensional topography, we can create very different kinds of planting landscape. You get more like an Alpine escarpment at the highest part, where the wind is the greatest, but then you get protected areas and different areas of shading."
Safety considerations necessitated the of use concrete for the main structure, according to Heatherwick, who said that the Hudson River Trust stipulated it for both the safety of the users and the marine environment.
"The forces of the Hudson River are massive on it," he explained. "The [existing] wooden ones are absolutely gorgeous. But they're not an option."
The new concrete columns of Little Island rise out of the water next to the wooden piles of the old Pier 54
Each of the concrete piles is sunk deep into the riverbed. The six-metre wide planters at the top of each pile are formed from precast concrete sections that were fabricated offsite and transported by barge to the site. Each one is filled with soil to hold the hundreds of species of plants and trees that form the park.
The concrete piles are all at different heights, exaggerating the visibility of the engineering that went into the structure and creating an undulating topography for the park.
"By making an effective bowl by lifting all those corners up, it's sort of acting like a social condenser," said Heatherwick, who explained that the idea came from his visits to hill towns in Italy, where promenading and people-watching are key social activities.
"People love to see and be seen," he said.
Little Island is accessed via two bridges
Little Island has been almost a decade in the making. At one point it was touch-and-go as to whether the project would ever get built.
Construction ground to a halt in 2017 when opponents obtained a court ruling against it. But city governor Andrew Cuomo personally intervened and the project went ahead under the new banner of Little Island.
"It got stuck in the politics of New York," says Heatherwick.
"The loss to the city would have been very large, I think, to not go ahead with something like that."
Little Island features an undulating topography
The $260 million project was largely privately funded by businessman Barry Diller, who has an estimated personal fortune of $3.7 billion, and his fashion designer wife through their Diller-Von Furstenburg Family Foundation.
The foundation will pay for the maintenance of the structure for the next 20 years.
Cities have "lost their nerve" to create new public space
Privately owned public spaces are controversial. But without them, Heatherwick argued, architects today have scant opportunity to design for the public realm.
"Cities themselves have lost the confidence to create projects," said the designer. "The governments and councils are not commissioning it. It's like they lost their confidence. They lost their nerve."
"So it is in the hands of private organisations to be making the public space that we use, which is a sort of funny upside-down way."
Little Island is the latest in a line of projects in the public realm that Heatherwick has designed for private clients, including the Vessel viewpoint in New York and London's Coal Drops Yard.
Such projects enable architects and designers to advocate for public amenities, Heatherwick argued.
"Otherwise we just make dead art galleries everywhere. How many art galleries can you have?" he asked.
"I mean, it would be easy for a studio like ours to do lots of rich people's private homes. And that's not interesting to me. So I'd much rather do objects in the public realm. And yes, it's contentious, when it's privately owned space."
Tickets for performances at the park will be subsidised, Heatherwick said
Visitors have to book timed tickets to access Little Island, but they are free. And Heatherwick was keen to highlight that there will be affordable tickets to the plays and shows put on at the park's performance spaces.
"There is a deep commitment to not just letting it be Manhattan elites," he said. "The subsidised tickets are for people from Harlem and the Bronx and all the boroughs around."
Vessel, Heatherwick's 16-storey viewing platform in the middle of Hudson Yards, came under fire when it came to light that any photos taken at the site would be owned by the company that runs it. Architecture critic Alan G Brake dubbed it "urban costume jewellery" in "a billionaire's fantasy".
With Little Island's bumpy journey to completion, Heatherwick might well have been braced for more criticism. But so far, the designer said, Little Island has been "very, very, very positively received".
"Maybe the thing is I should never go to my own projects anymore," he joked, referring to the fact that he has not yet been able to see Little Island in person.
Due to the pandemic, Heatherwick has been unable to visit New York since January 2020, when the very first trees on the island park were being planted.
"I want to reserve judgement for myself until I can see it," he said. " I haven't been there in so long. It's tantalising."
Photography is by Timothy Schenck.
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Thomas Heatherwick's Little Island is a park and outdoor theatre over the Hudson
British designer Thomas Heatherwick has completed Little Island, a park and performance venue supported by 132 concrete columns set into the Hudson River in New York.
Heatherwick Studio built the 2.4-acre park with global engineering firm Arup and New York-based landscape architects MNLA.
Little Island rests on 132 concrete columns
Two bridges connect Little Island to the mainland. The park is located on Manhattan's West Side, close to the southern end of the High Line.
Over 540 metres of pathways wind through the park, looping past viewpoints and performance spaces, including an amphitheatre that frames the water behind the stage.
The park's landscape undulates over the Hudson River
Little Island is formed of mushroom-shaoed columns made from concrete that are set at different levels to create an undulating park.
According to Heatherwick, the idea for the design came from observing the piles of the old Pier 54 that still poke out of the water and provide a breeding ground for fish.
"Typically, piers are composed of structural piles that go down into the river bed with slabs that cover them to make a surface," said Thomas Heatherwick.
"However, we were inspired by these piles and the civil engineering required to build structures that are able to withstand extreme river conditions."
The precast concrete planters are formed of modular petals
The piles, each of which can support up to 350 tons, have been driven deep into the rock 61 metres beneath the water.
Little Island's precast concrete elements were fabricated upstate using 39 different formwork shapes, then transported to the site via barge.
The piles have been driven deep into the rocky riverbed
A cast-in-place concrete slab connects all the precast elements. The tops of the piles are made of prefabricated "petals" that form six-metre-wide pots filled with soil.
MNLA chose 400 species of plants and 100 types of tree for the project, strategically planting evergreens to stop the wind from the river buffeting people as they stroll through the park. There are lawns for visitors to sunbathe on in the summer.
The park has winding paths and viewpoints
Steps made of black locust, a hardwood native to New York, lead up and down the hilly landscape. Piles of boulders are arranged for people to scramble over as a more adventurous alternative to the paths.
Little Island has three performance venues including the amphitheatre, which has wooden benches and a capacity for 700 audience members.
An amphitheatre can seat an audience of 700
There's also a central space that can hold 3,500 people and a more intimate 200-person spoken-word stage.
Instead of building extra structures in the park and disrupting the view, all of the backstage facilities for the performance venues are built under the pier and accessed via one of the bridges.
Bridges connect the park to the Manhattan mainland
Little Island is now open to the public and can be accessed with free timed tickets.
It took eight years for Heatherwick to realise the project. Originally called Pier 55, the project was first proposed in 2014 and backed by media mogul Barry Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.
Construction started in 2016 but was halted a year later after legal lobbying from local campaign groups. But the project restarted in 2019 under the new moniker of Little Island.
Heatherwick's other projects include Coal Drops Yard in London and Vessel in Hudson Yards.
Photography is by Timothy Schenck.
Project credits:
Architect: Heatherwick Studio
Landscape architecture: MNLA
Structural, civil, mechanical: Arup
Amphitheatre, back of house, restrooms: Standard Architects
Lighting design: FMS
Wayfinding: C & G Partners
Irrigation design: ICI
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Photos reveal Thomas Heatherwick's Little Island in New York ahead of opening
Photographs show Little Island, the park designed by Thomas Heatherwick on the Hudson River in New York, ahead of its official opening tomorrow.
Originally called Pier 55, Little Island is an elevated park built on top of 132 mushroom-shaped concrete columns in the river at 55 Hudson Greenway.
Little Island was formerly known as Pier 55
Located on the edge of Manhattan's Meatpacking District, close to the southern end of the High Line and the Whitney Museum, Little Island officially opens to the public on 21 May 2021 and can be visited for free with timed tickets.
The photos were taken for WSJ. Magazine to accompany an interview with fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and her husband, businessman Barry Diller, who funded the project.
"My hope is that people will enjoy it, be inspired by it, and they’ll enjoy it 100 years from now," Diller told WSJ. Magazine.
"If that happens, great. Otherwise, they can dynamite it."
Thomas Heatherwick designed the elevated park that juts out over the Hudson River
Diller discussed the rollercoaster ride of seeing the $260 million project through to fruition.
British designer Thomas Heatherwick proposed the park over the Hudson in 2014.
Construction on the project started in 2016 but stalled in 2017 when the United States District Court vacated its permit after advocacy group The City Club of New York lobbied against it.
Little Island sits on mushroom-shaped concrete planters
"On the day we were supposed to order $80 million worth of cement, our lawyers said [the opposing group] could get an injunction," said Diller.
"Not only would I have all this cement sitting around with nowhere to put it, whatever else I’d done so far would have to be undone too," he added.
"I was angry. I had taken $45 million of the foundation’s money and literally thrown it in the river. I felt irresponsible."
The park has three stages including an amphitheatre
Diller said that New York's governor Andrew Cuomo then called him repeatedly and offered to help get the lawsuit dropped. The project was restarted and relaunched in 2019 and renamed Little Island.
The 2.4-acre park has three stages for live theatre performances, including an amphitheatre of wooden benches facing the river.
There are 500 events scheduled for the park between June and September this year.
Diller said he hopes that Little Island can also become a nightclub, and has applied for a liquor licence.
Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller spent $260 million on the park
Heatherwick's other new public project The Vessel, a 46-metre-high viewing platform in Hudson's Yard, has been closed since January 2021 after a third person died by suicide at the site.
Diller said the design team had taken extra precautions at Little Island, spending $6 million on a perimeter system and employing 24-hour security for the park.
"Look, if someone wants to hurt themselves you can’t stop them," said Diller.
"But we did do a lot of studies and from this height, unlike the George Washington Bridge or The Vessel, if you fall into the river, it's unlikely that you will kill yourself."
Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer whose work includes a skyscraper in Singapore covered in plants and a plant-filled cancer care centre in the UK.
Photography is by Adrian Gaut for WSJ. Magazine.
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Christian Alvarez
dezeen (unofficial)
