New Pier 35 Is A 'Front Porch' To Lower East Side's Waterfront

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — After years of delays, the city unveiled a new eco-park along the Lower East Side's waterfront Wednesday.

The Economic Development Corporation partially opened a 28,000-square-foot park with the city's largest vine wall, plenty of seating for visitors to soak in views of Brooklyn and Manhattan and design nods to the area's ecology including a "mussel beach" to serve as a marine life habit.

Pier 35 is unique in that it includes an artificial beach that offers visitors a peak at the East River's rising and falling tides — something that isn't particularly common in the concrete jungle, according to the project's landscape architect.

"Most of the waterfront in New York City is a seawall — it’s vertical — and you really can’t see the tide change and here you can look over this railing and actually see the water coming in and going out," said Ken Smith, with Ken Smith Workshop.

"So it’s a really rare opportunity for New York to understand how the waterfront works."

The pier's makeover is part of the East River Waterfront Esplanade project, which aims to improve waterfront access across the city by renovating piers and creating public space. City officials announced Pier 35's overhaul in 2009, which originally set competition for 2011, but hit years of delays after having to switch contractors mid-project.

The former contractor, Trocom, went bankrupt shortly after the city cut the firm out of the project. A new request for proposal, or RFP, was issued in 2015 and construction began at the hands of Hunter Roberts in 2017, according to an Economic Development Cooperation spokeswoman.

The Parks Department will maintain the pier and community group, Friends of Pier 35, will develop public programming for the green space in partnership with the city. The group's president aims to introduce programs that give the "open-space-starved" community agency over the public space as a wave of luxury development sweeps the neighborhood.

"Our true vision is to make sure this stays community led, and community programmed," said Trever Holland, the head of Friends of Pier 35 and the chairman of Community Board 3's Parks Committee.

"With the threats of development we’re facing, we’re a little worried about this becoming a commercial spot. So it’s extremely important that this stay a community space."

Although the pier suffered years of delays, the project stayed true to its design and boasts a 35-foot-high screen wall that will be overlaid with six types of vines come spring for year-round greenery.

"There’s six different types of vines so that there’s some that flower in the spring, some that have fall coloring, some that are evergreen in the winter so that it will always be a kind of interesting thing," said Smith.

The pier's mussel beach is a 65-foot long artificial habitat designed to attract colonies of blue and ribbed mussels along with the East River shoreline. It's a habitat that aims to promote river ecology with sloping concrete surfaces and gardens in the tidal zone, according to the project's architects.

Park visitors have to cross a bridge-like structure that carries them from South Street onto the pier past an opening that exposes the beach. The configuration is ideal for curious Lower East Siders to pause and admire the natural landscape.

"Part of the idea to do that is that we would recreate the rocky intertidal shoreline that used to be native to Manhattan and do this kind of artificial beach that would attract a mussel habitat," said Catherine Jones, a project director with SHoP Architects.

"That was another part of having the bridge so when you enter through the pier you walk across the bridge and that gives you the ability to stop, pause and take a look."

The last piece of the park, a waterfront plaza with a canopy, elevated stage and swing seats, is expected to open early Spring 2019.

Photos courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch