Best Design Studio: Large
SHoP Architects
Pier 35
Architecture - Public and Institutional | Creator: SHoP Architects | Commissioner: New York City Economic Development Corporation
Designed by SHoP Architects with Ken Smith Workshop, the new eco-park at Pier 35 will anchor the northern boundary of the East River esplanade project, providing much-needed outdoor space for the local community along the waterfront and acting as an innovative habitat restoration park.
The pier features an accordion-like design, creating the sense of a “folded” terrain. A series of landscaped lawns and dunes create a walkway, while an inclined, plant-covered folded screen wall acts as a “green” billboard to the city. Rising to a height of 35 feet and stretching over 300 feet in length, the screen wall also effectively camouflages the adjacent Sanitation Department shed at Pier 36. A raised porch with custom swings provides a place to relax and take in the views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
In addition, with a grant from the New York Department of State’s Division of Coastal Resources, Mussel Beach was created as an ecological prototype, replicating the characteristics of the historic East River shoreline. Designed specifically for mussels, the pier’s folded terrain drops down into the river, creating a gradient of sloping planes that interface with the daily rising and falling of the tides.
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