Oliver Wainwright, a trained architect and the architectural critic of The Guardian does not seem to like the so called “Garden Bridge” designed by Thomas Heatherwick. The proposed and partially approved fairytale garden bridge over the Thames is much like the proposed Diller Island (Pier 55) also designed by Heatherwick. On Tuesday, November 18, Wainwright compared the two with lip-biting frustration.
What, asks Wainwright, oh what “makes people want to part with millions” for “ a Disneyfied confection” on stilts—is it the trees and water and fairytale stories that “allow conventional urban planning to be gleefully suspended”?
But what Wainwright really hates is the design—“It is a vision straight from the set of Avatar—fecund flowerbeds erupting from mushroom-shaped columns, their canopies joining to support parkland above the water…a thicket of 300 fungi rising from [30 to 75 feet] above the Hudson River to form an undulating platform.”
And Wainwright takes a whack at the architectural judgment of Diller and partner Diane Von Furstenberg: “A faceted glass lump…crowns the roof of the Von Furstenberg empire, while Diller is proudly known as the patron of one of Frank Gehry’s worst buildings a few blocks away.”
In another article about Heatherwick’s London Bridge released on November 19, Wainwright says “Critics are calling for a public inquiry into this mayoral project of most unique origins which appears to have been fast-tracked through the system.”
Those exact words could apply to Diller Island.
I read about Diller Island around 8:00 AM in the Times, which recorded that very same day and in advance of the gift that de Blasio gave $17 million and Cuomo $18 million to build a bridge to the island. I mean what if a follower of ISIS flew an explosive drone into City Hall that morning—morning—what if de Blasio was prevented from writing the check for $17 million, which the Times had already reported he had given. Then The New York Times would have lied, and the slick, expensive PR firm that so carefully managed the reveal of the Diller Island plan would have had egg on their face.
