Since its opening in 2021, Little Island has been wildly successful as a park for experiencing both nature and the performing arts – the most imaginative outdoor space I’ve ever seen or ever will see. You cannot possibly describe it, and so photos are a must, like this one I got to take this week. So yes, it was worth the hassle to get there!
(Click here for great photos and a rave review in the New York Times at its opening. Or read about Little Island on Wiki.)
Where?
It’s also hard to imagine its location, so this might help:
Little Island is in the Hudson River, just west of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District on the Lower West Side. The curving green line is the extremely popular elevated High Line Park.
Some billionaires do great things!
The instigator and primary funder of this amazing amenity for the city and its visitors is the Diller- von Furstenberg Family Foundation (as in media mogul Barry and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg), to the tune of a $260 million donation, with support from the City of New York. The foundation’s other philanthropic endeavors include The High Line, The Statue of Liberty Museum, Signature Theatre, Carnegie Hall Society, and the Central Park Conservancy, among others.
The foundation donated another $120 million for its upkeep for the first 10 years, and has since upped that maintenance commitment to 20 years.
How the design was imagined
Photo credit: LittleIslandNYC on Instagram
Little Island’s website explains how they came up with this ingenious way to repair and reactive Pier 54, which had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Quoting the designer:
My studio and I became interested in the remains of the old piers on the west side of Manhattan, where their top surfaces had long gone, leaving only hundreds of ancient structural wooden piles sticking out of the river.
We wondered if the identity of our new park and performance space could emerge from the water, just like these structural piles, but without needing to add any slab on top. This idea evolved to take the new concrete piles that would be needed to connect to the granite at the base of the river, and to then continue them out of the water, extending skyward to raise sections of a generous green landscape with rich horticulture. Fusing at they meet, these 280 individual piles come together to form the undulating topography of the park, angled perfectly for performance and theatre spaces.
That’s genius!
The Plants
The Amsonia will be bright orange a couple of weeks from now.
For my late-September visit the plants weren’t at their showiest. They also weren’t easy to photograph because on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, the place was packed!!!! I did find some plant photos here.
And I found the designer describing the landscape here:
There are roughly 400 different species of trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials throughout Little Island and at least 35 different species of trees through the park that are suited to the New York climate. Each corner of the island represents a different microclimate depending on the topography, sun exposure and wind patterns.
There are roughly 400 different species in the park: 35 trees, 65 shrubs, and 290 varieties of grasses, vines, and perennials.
Different planting typologies define three distinct overlooks—the Northeast, the Southwest, and the Northwest.
More than 66,000 bulbs were planted, including Camassia, Fritillaria, Chinodoxa, Muscari and Narcissus.
The four seasons are evident through flowering trees and shrubs in spring, evolving perennial displays in summer, foliage blended with softer hues of grasses in fall, and evergreens trees and shrubs in winter.
Lawns offer places to relax and view people and performances with ample places to sunbathe and lounge.
Weathering steel sheet piling was selected for the retaining walls to continue the warm materials palette used throughout the pier, and their crenellated form creates opportunities to tuck in vines and make spaces for cascading shrubs and perennials. Sheet piles were fabricated by a New York company.
Seven sets of stairs with 420 steps were milled from New York-sourced Black Locust.
Three playful boulder scrambles quarried from update New York delight visitors and provide a different cadence to traverse in the landscape.
For People
Here’s one of the “boulder scrambles” mentioned above. I saw them used for seating along the climb to the top.
Visit0rs climb to the top of the taller part of the island, taking either the wide, accessible route or the more rustic shortcuts that are fun to explore.
Here’s the largest of the Island’s two performance venues, where “The Marriage of Figaro” is now playing. Together, they held 572 free or “modestly priced” shows in 2023.
The climb to the top ends at a 360° look-out. Here’s the view south overlooking the Pier 58 Park.
My visit
Honestly, the hoards of people reminded me of visiting Disney World, but this free park attracts those hoards with a very cool design, a thriving diversity of plants, river views and those 500+ performances every year. Crowds and all, I was still wow’d by Little Island, and who doesn’t like being wowed?
While I was there I was also imagining living nearby (in an apartment without even a balcony!) and being able to visit the island regularly, at all times of the year and of the day. Boy, I wish Barry and Diane lived near ME.
Walking the High Line, again
On my way to Little Island I walked the High Line Park for my fourth time and like Elizabeth said of her 2023 visit, I’m still not tired of it. I’ll share a couple of photos below but for better plant shots, visit my 2013 report here, my 2018 update, and especially Evelyn Hadden’s post about the High Line, based on a seminar by High Line manager Patrick Cullina.
Even when the park is low on flower power, there’s plenty of art and architecture to appreciate along the route.
Andy Warhol in the distance.
About my “Travel Troubles”
Here’s where I spent the most time during my tourist-going that afternoon – cooling my feet in this wonderful water feature of the High Line. See, I was hot and tired and oh-so stressed-out by everything that had gone wrong that day, starting with missing my train from DC. (Not my fault!)
But after reading about Elizabeth’s troubles (arriving home from Seattle 30 hours late, thanks to Delta’s computer glitch) and Marianne’s trips home from Asheville and Belize, both adding 25 hours to her trip, I really can’t complain. I’ll save my travel-trouble details for my lucky friends and family!
Next Friday’s Post: Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Bridge!
My second (and last) day in Manhattan was easier on this (solo) traveler.
Photo credit: Little IslandNYC on Instagram. All other photos by the author.
