Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 25 July 2017
Futuristic NY pier project pits billionaire vs billionaire

By VERENA DOBNIK , He rarely gives interviews
NEW YORK (AP) — A battle on the subject of Pier 55,
between two New York but told The Villager ear-
billionaires has been hold- lier this year, he had tried
ing up a plan to replace a to keep his involvement
crumbling pier on Manhat- in funding the opposition
tan’s Hudson River water- lawsuits quiet because “I
front with an avant-garde did not want this to be a
park on pilings rising above personal battle between
the riverbed. me and Barry Diller.”
Now, that years-long fight “I have nothing against
could be entering another Diller — except he said he
round — or finally headed wishes I had been killed by
to detente. my brother,” Durst told the
Proponents and oppo- neighborhood newspaper.
nents of the $250 million Durst’s estranged brother,
project plan to meet Mon- Robert Durst, was acquit-
day to try and reach a set- ted in the death of an ac-
tlement that would avoid quaintance in Texas and
more legal action in a con- is now facing charges in
flict that has pitted media Los Angeles that he killed
mogul Barry Diller and his a longtime friend because
wife, fashion maven Diane he feared she might di-
von Furstenberg, against This undated artist rendering provided by Pier55 Inc./Heatherwick Studio, shows the proposed vulge incriminating infor-
redevelopment of Pier 55 in New York City.
Douglas Durst, the real es- Associated Press mation regarding the 1982
tate developer and sky- disappearance of his first
scraper baron. “There’s a lot of anxiety
Diller helped hatch the that Diller won’t follow
idea for the park and has through if this is further de-
promised, with his wife, to layed,” Emery said.
pay for it through a family The plan to tear down the
charitable foundation. He old, deteriorating Pier 54
told the AP that he didn’t on the Manhattan water-
plan to attend the meet- front and replace it with
ing but hoped the negoti- a new structure, Pier 55,
ations would be successful. seemed like a fait ac-
“I wish them well,” he said. compli when it was first
Durst, who has funded announced in 2014. The
lawsuits opposing the design calls for an undulat-
park, declined to be inter- ing 2.4-acre (0.97-hectare)
landscape of trees and
fields rising over a cluster
of mushroom-like pillars. It
would have three venues
for dance, theater and
musical performances and
would be accessible via
two walkways out over the
water. The press dubbed
it “Diller Island” after Diller
and von Furstenberg prom-
ised to fund the project.
It would be built on a stretch
of Hudson River waterfront
that has been transformed
over many years from a In this Nov. 10, 2014 file photo, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, left, and her husband,
long-faded port district media mogul Barry Diller, attend the The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit 2014, in New York.
into a green string of popu- Associated Press
lar recreational piers and
This Nov. 12, 2007 file photo, esplanades known as the ated is like moving plants unsuccessful ones in state wife. Diller, who had made
show real estate developer Hudson River Park. around their personal courts, and a third that re- the quip about Durst’s
Douglas Durst at Purchase Opposition emerged, backyard,” said Emery, a sulted in a federal court re- brother in public while dis-
College’s 40th Anniversary though, partly based on civil rights attorney repre- voking the project’s permit cussing the battle over the
Gala in New York, where Durst environmental concerns senting the nonprofit City this past March. pier, later apologized.
was honored by the college about the pier’s impact Club of New York, a civic Durst had once been Both men are noted phi-
with a Nelson A. Rockefeller on aquatic life, and part- lanthropists. Diller, who
award. group fueling the contrar- deeply involved in support-
Associated Press ly rooted in complaints ian position. ing Hudson River Park, but formerly ran Paramount
from some over the way Three lawsuits were filed had a falling out with other Pictures and Fox Inc., gave
viewed. But Richard Emery, in which the project had challenging the project. leaders and gave up the tens of millions of dollars
a lawyer for the project been planned without Durst recently acknowl- chairmanship of the sup- with his wife to another in-
opponents, confirmed the broader public input. edged that he had quietly port group Friends of Hud- novative, elevated city
meeting. “The way they’ve oper- funded the lawsuits — two son River Park Group. park, the High Line. q