I wanted to start this article with “Oh wow” but it seems I have already used that opening so Word demands another expression to describe my sudden rattling at discovering in The New York Times this morning that Barry Diller is ready to write out a check for $130 million to build an island off 14th street.
Money talks, and as more and more money goes into fewer and fewer tax- avoidance-foundation hands we will see more and more gifts like Barry’s -and sure, why not?
In the more than twenty years since the death of the multi-billion dollar Federal, State and City Westway highway,(because it would interfere with the breeding ground of the striped bass,) we have seen request for after request for proposals, and millions of dollars wasted, by developers who could not ignite sufficient excitement for aquariums, or permanent circus theaters, to get whomever it is that has to sign off to sign off. (I still don’t know who signs off – do you?)
But as I say, money talks and the Hudson River Park NEEDS money so they will take Barry’s check – boy will they ever!
Now the island is not that big – just 2.4 acres, and when I say that is not big I know what I am talking about because my house out in Water Mill sits on exactly 2.4 acres. But Barry’s British architect projects two performance spaces, one for 1,250 people and the other for 800. And this is to look like a for-real island, with trees and meandering paths that end on a reinforced concrete hill covered with grass and plantings.
One small aesthetic problem though – the “island would rest on 300 mushroom shaped concrete columns 30 to 70 feet above the Hudson.” Hmm, it looks very funny in the model, but don’t complain – this is Barry’s taste and he is paying for it.
So we are coming into a new era – we are more and more subject to the tastes of the ever growing gaggle of billionaires who build 70 story asparagus-thin condos, and now concrete islands on stilts.
But don’t knock it, they have the money and it’s all you will get!
Money not only talks – it builds.
