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U.S. NEWS Monday 24 July 2017

Futuristic NY pier project pits billionaire vs billionaire

ery said. It would have three ven- a green string of popular
The plan to tear down the ues for dance, theater and recreational piers and es-
old, deteriorating Pier 54 on musical performances and planades known as the
the Manhattan waterfront would be accessible via Hudson River Park.
and replace it with a new two walkways out over the Opposition emerged,
structure, Pier 55, seemed water. The press dubbed though, partly based on
like a fait accompli when it “Diller Island” after Diller environmental concerns
it was first announced in and von Furstenberg prom- about the pier’s impact on
2014. ised to fund the project. aquatic life, and partly root-
The design calls for an undu- It would be built on a stretch ed in complaints from some
lating 2.4-acre (0.97-hect- of Hudson River waterfront over the way in which the
are) landscape of trees that has been transformed project had been planned
and fields rising over a clus- over many years from a without broader public
ter of mushroom-like pillars. long-faded port district into input.q

This undated artist rendering provided by Pier55 Inc./
Heatherwick Studio, shows the proposed redevelopment of
Pier 55 in New York City. Media mogul Barry Diller and his wife,
fashion maven Diane von Furstenberg propose to spend about
$200 million transforming Pier 55 on Manhattan’s West Side from
a bunch of historic piles jutting from the water into a futuristic,
undulating park and performance space rising over a cluster of
white mushroom-like caissons.
(Pier55 Inc./Heatherwick Studio via AP)
By VERENA DOBNIK Furstenberg, against Doug-
Associated Press las Durst, the real estate
NEW YORK (AP) — A battle developer and skyscraper
between two New York baron.
billionaires has been hold- Diller helped hatch the
ing up a plan to replace a idea for the park and has
crumbling pier on Manhat- promised, with his wife, to
tan’s Hudson River water- pay for it through a family
front with an avant-garde charitable foundation. He
park on pilings rising above told the AP that he didn’t
the riverbed. plan to attend the meet-
Now, that years-long fight ing but hoped the negotia-
could be entering another tions would be successful.
round — or finally headed “I wish them well,” he said.
to detente. Durst, who has funded law-
Proponents and opponents suits opposing the park, de-
of the $250 million project clined to be interviewed.
plan to meet Monday to But Richard Emery, a law-
try and reach a settlement yer for the project oppo-
that would avoid more le- nents, confirmed the meet-
gal action in a conflict that ing.
has pitted media mogul “There’s a lot of anxiety that
Barry Diller and his wife, Diller won’t follow through if
fashion maven Diane von this is further delayed,” Em-