On February the 11th the thirteen members of the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) will sit down to accept the offer of billionaire Barry Diller to spend $130 million dollars to build a 2.9 acre, undulating, reinforced concrete island supported by three hundred concrete mushrooms standing 70 to 30 feet above the Hudson. Designed by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick, who delights in clusters of enormous repetitive forms, it will be more a gigantic piece of sculpture than an island or a pier—it will, indeed, be the largest and most expensive such piece of sculpture ever built in New York City and perhaps in the world.
The seemingly generous offer will be no surprise to the board. As the park’s Chief Operating Officer, Madelyn Wils, offered in the January issue of WestView News, she approached Diller and his wife, dress designer Diane Von Furstenberg, for a contribution to rebuild the decayed Pier 54 between 14th and 15th Street some months ago.
Both Diller and Von Furstenberg have made the meatpacking district their turf, with Diller building his prismatic glass Frank Gary designed headquarters on 11th Avenue and 19th street and Mrs. Von Furstenbergher headquarters at 874 Washington and 14th Streets. Both have made large donations to the High Line and, now, the new Whitney.
There is a difference, however, in the proposed new Pier 55—it is not a private space that belongs to Diller or Furstenberg, but is instead a public space. It will have 3 open-air amphitheaters for performances and concerts. Diller, a former Paramount and Fox CEO, knows how to recruit talent, witness British born Kate Horton—the former deputy director of the National Theater and for ten years the commercial manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company—who will head the events program. Half of the events will be free or low cost and others will have ticket prices as high as $40.
For twenty years under the parks original charter, HRPT has been formally inviting developers to propose attractions to develop the three commercial piers like Pier 40 (the largest at 15 acres) at West Houston Street and use the lease fees to maintain the 5 mile long Park. After two formal efforts and a peppering of informal proposals, the board has rejected aquariums, as well as a permanent home for the Canadian Cirque du Soleil. Most recently, in some desperation, they hit upon selling the air rights and secretly made a deal with St. John’s Terminal’s new chief owner Mike Novogratz for $100 million so he might build in your-face high condo towers on top of the three block long terminal. This didn’t last long because sneaky maneuverers are an anathema to West Villagers, and all hell broke loose. Novogratz withdrew the offer, consoling himself perhaps with the knowledge he had lots of air rights to go with only a 3 story building to start with.
Now, since Diller is not leasing the island but building it, his new non-profit corporation will not be paying a monthly fee for its use, but instead will receive a twenty-year lease and a ten-year renewable option with the stipulation that any portion of the island not offering paid performances will remain open as a park. But the bottom line is that Diller Island will not contribute to the cost of maintaining the rest of the park.
But wait, how are we going to get to Diller’s island? It will stand 186 feet offshore. This is a problem for anyone wanting to get to the island, and Diller wants taxpayers to fund a solution. In private(or if you prefer, secret) meetings with our mayor and governor, they collectively agreed to spend $39.5 million of our tax dollars to build two causeways to Diller Island. So not only will we get no rent from the island, but also we will have to pay $39.5 million of our tax dollars to allow Diller ticket buyers to get to it.
Even I like the idea of a billionaire who made his money successfully guessing what we wanted to see on the film screen or on TV hiring top talent to mount performances on the island—I know they will be a success—but why build this funny fried egg island on crazily expensive 70 foot high concrete mushrooms and force us to spend $39.5 million tax dollars get to it?
With Ms. Horton’s long sojourn with the Royal Shakespeare Company we can be assured that we shall see Shakespeare in the park under the stars, which is great—but we do not need it to ride on the back of this outrageously expensive and ugly back-of-the-dinner-napkin design of Thomas Heatherwick.
There is a much cheaper way to get it.
In December of 2013, developer Douglas Durst reported that he had hired divers to check the corrosion of the 3700 steel pilings under Pier 40 and concluded fitting fiberglass jackets around them could stabilize them. Stabilizing and filling them with concrete would cost just $30 million for all 15 acres of Pier 40, as compared to the $130 million dollars for the 2.9 acres of Diller Island.
So Barry Diller could contribute that$30 million to save Pier 40 and use are stored Pier 40 to stage outdoor performances each summer. And you and I would not have to use our tax dollars to build a bridge the Heatherwick doodle.
Diller Island is a Net Loss
HRPT CEO, Madelyn Wils, confirms in e-mail that Barry Diller’s gift of a 2.9 acre concrete island off 14th Street will not generate monthly rental fees to pay for the maintenance of the whole parkas stipulated by the charter, but instead will add the cost of maintaining the 300 concrete mushroom piles holding up the tipped and undulating concrete platform to the HRPT’s costs. In addition the city and state have agreed to spend $39.5 million taxpayer dollars to build two bridges to accommodate attendees to the Diller paid performances.
Madelyn Wils’ email said: “P55Inc will be operating the programming at the pier. HRPT will maintain it. P55Inc will pay for maintenance above the structural deck which includes all utilities. P55Inc will pay $1 a year. All revenues from P55Inc programming will go back into the pier for either programming (which is subsidized) or paying for maintenance of the pier.”
