Pier 26 ‘estuarium’ and science playground are in progress

Thought it was time for an update on the remainder of the Tribeca section of Hudson River Park — the upland area along the highway between Pier 25 and 26.

There are two pieces left to build out: the science play area and what the Hudson River Park Trust calls an “estuarium” — a building and program dedicated to the study of the estuary.

The funding is not entirely in place for the estuarium yet, but the Trust has put out an RFP — the deadline was in May — for a design team. “We don’t have a construction schedule yet, but hope that by moving forward on the design, we’ll get a better handle on construction costs and will be able to better able to raise the balance of the funds,” said Noreen Doyle, the president of the Trust.

The estuarium will be an approximately 10,000-square-foot environmental education building, and the architect is being asked to provide architecture and engineering for the structure and an aquaria exhibit.

The Hudson River Park Friends just concluded a big fundraising effort for the playground, and as a result, the requests for bids for the construction there will go out this summer. (That’s the latest rendering, above.) The campaign raised $3.5M to fund the construction of a marine science-focused play area, featuring custom and interactive sculptural elements — ie, giant sturgeon. Tribecan Mike Novogratz offered a $1.3 million match to make it happen.

The 4000-square-foot playground will be designed by OLIN, the landscape architects that designed Pier 26.

 

7 Comments

  1. It’s a shame that we can’t have something for the park everyone can enjoy vs more children oriented play things.

    • Always has to be that person. What would be more adult friendly? Grass and benches? Thats is Literally the entire shoreline down to the ferry terminal. Go enjoy
      Rockefeller park 0.25 miles away, its glorious

    • I just want a place to get a decent iced coffee by the piers. Crazy that they don’t have this anywhere in HRP. Laughing Man by Brookfield is the only place. They should include a small coffeeshop in whatever they’re building here—would be a huge hit. Maybe some good sandwiches too.

      And yeah I’m somewhat in agreement about this being a bit over specialized. I’m not a big fan of the “multipurpose” court on Pier 26 either. It’s a huge space that’s barely used. Simple trees and grass would’ve been better. I’ll take it though—we’re very lucky to have all of these new amenities.

  2. They should have made the space tennis courts. The existing tennis courts have hours of waiting for a turn. It would have been something everyone could have enjoyed.

  3. It would be great if someone built a running regulated track and field.

  4. I would look at how the other piers do it. A good mix of adult and children things to do in a very beautiful and architecturally pleasing way. Tribeca’s pier is basically a large Gymboree at this point

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