By Daniel Katzive

Upper West Siders will have a new park to visit this summer, with a playground, small athletic field, and plenty of grass and benches for quiet reflection. The space is within easy walking distance of the southern reaches of the neighborhood.

Workers are currently putting the finishing touches on Hudson River Park’s newest attraction. Pier 97, located where West 57th Street meets the Hudson River, is already accessible to visitors, though some features remain fenced off while work continues.

The new park space features a playground and splash area as well as a synthetic turf athletic field. At about 120 feet in length, the field could accommodate a soccer game for younger children or provide practice space for older athletes. It will be reservable via the park’s seasonal permitting system and will also have some time for unreserved play. 

The pier also includes a grassy space and an elevated platform along the north end that leads to an “all ages” slide, though these features are still to be completed. To the south, Pier 97 visitors can already sit on chairs and enjoy prospects of the water, sunsets over the river, and perhaps wave at arriving cruise ships. The south side of Pier 97 also allows a good view of work underway at Pier 94, which is being converted into a commercial soundstage facility to be called Sunset Studios.

Views to the north of the pier are perhaps more prosaic but offer a look at life on a working waterfront. Pier 98 is occupied by a ConEd fuel dock and cable cooling system, while Pier 99 houses the Sanitation Department’s marine transfer station for recycled paper leaving Manhattan by barge. Piers along most of the Hudson River in Manhattan are identified by numbers which correspond to the intersecting street number, plus forty, so Pier 97 is at the foot of Pier 57th Street – and so on.

Still under construction is a two-story structure on the 12th Avenue end of the pier. This will house a concession stand, public bathrooms, and bike repair equipment when complete, as well as some maintenance storage.

New York state created Hudson River Park Trust in 1998 to take over unused or lightly used piers along the Hudson River and create a new public park and marine sanctuary. Heading south from the Upper West Side, Hudson River Park begins where the city-run Riverside Park South ends at West 59th Street and extends more than four miles down to Battery Park City. Pier 97 is the last of the piers originally handed over to be built out. For that reason, opening this facility is a big deal for the trust, said trust CEO Noreen Doyle, who called it  “a major moment.” 

Hudson River Park has different financial resources from traditional city parks. Its operating budget benefits from rents and fees from various commercial operators along the river, such as Chelsea Piers, and capital projects in the park can tap into funding from the state. The park’s piers have tended to incorporate more elaborate designs and unique features, compared to those in more traditional city parks like Riverside Park. The Pier 97 project cost about $50 million, with most of the funding coming from the state.

Until now, Upper West Siders could enjoy the cool breeze and the grassy space at Hudson River Park’s Clinton Cove or perhaps kayak or paddleboard from the boathouse on Pier 96, both located at the end of West 56th Street.  But higher profile riverside attractions, such as Little Island or the rooftop park and food courts of Pier 57, were concentrated much further downtown, south of the busy cruise terminal, excursion boat piers, and ferry docks that dominate the waterfront in the West 30s and 40s. Visits to those downtown features involved an excursion, perhaps combined with a bike ride or a trip to the Whitney or the High Line. 

Community engagement was an important part of the pier’s design process, according to Doyle. “We heard from people about what they hoped to have up there,” she told WSR.  More field space for sports is one thing that came up frequently in the community outreach process, inspiring the inclusion of the turf field in the design.

Leslie Boghosian Murphy, vice chair of Manhattan Community Board 4 and co-chair of CB4’s Waterfront, Parks and Environment Committee, said the trust had done a good job of bringing community members and the pier’s designers together during the planning process. “We really have helped transform a former obnoxious concrete slab into this beautiful multi-use park,” she said, noting that “public open green space is precious in our district…we don’t have a lot of it.” In addition to the passive and active spaces included in the design, Boghosian Murphy said community feedback pushed for inclusion of the public restrooms.

The pier will retain some capacity to accommodate access from boats. According to Doyle, the trust did the engineering work to include fendering and cleats along the south side of the structure to keep open the possibility that an historic vessel of some kind might visit or reside there at some point. However, there are no immediate plans to bring in a ship. Doyle noted one limitiation is that the water alongside the pier is rather shallow now and that the trust’s mission to preserve the marine habitat constrains the extent to which it can dredge.

Historically, though, there was plenty of depth at Pier 97. Swedish and Italian passenger liners called here through the 1960s. In later years, once the ships had gone, the pier was used as a parking area for Sanitation Department vehicles and featured a big pile of road salt. After the department left in 2011, Hudson River Park Trust did some work to stabilize the structure, and it was used for special events and concerts until work on the current project began about two years ago.

Though work continues on some features, the new park space began opening to visitors in January. On a recent warm Monday afternoon, Carly, who said she lives at West 56th Street and 10th Avenue, paid a visit with her dog Jeter. “It’s peaceful out there, away from the highway,” she said, as Jeter sniffed at the edges of the blue artificial turf field.

Further along, sitting on sculpted lounge chairs near the end of the pier were Tyler and Tiffany, local residents. They were excited to have a brand-new playground nearby (they are expecting a baby). “It’s not quite the beach,” said Tyler, “but the Hudson is the best we’ve got.”

Trust officials say they plan on formally opening the full pier later this spring. The trust will also be offering some of its free summer science and environmental education programming this summer on Pier 97, with schedules to be announced later.

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