2008 Awards

MERIT AWARD - Landscape Architectural Design

Riverside Park South Phases III & IV; New York, NY

Thomas Balsley Associates
www.tbany.com

When completed, Riverside South Park will stretch along the Hudson River from 59th Street to 72nd Street -the last link in the continuous riverfront promenade connection from Battery Park to 125th Street.  Extending from 65th Street south to 59th Street, Riverside Park South Phase III and IV completes the landscape architectural design language of its predecessors. Phase III is intended to serve as an escape into a coastal riparian landscape for a more intimate dialogue with the river’s ecological systems and the site’s rich railroad pier heritage. Large granite stone slabs, with logos referencing the historic rail lines that used this site as a major transit hub and distribution yard, create spaces to view the park and river. Floating above this terrace is a folded line of metal shade canopies that provide relief from the sun and frame the expansive views across to New Jersey. The scale, design and material of these structures suggest the earlier shed buildings and trestle structures that used to cover these historic rail yards.  In Phase IV, a series of lawn mounds provide a pastoral setting for perched seating and terminate with a heavily planted high promontory from which one can view the length of the park north. Distinctive shelters, river get-downs and overlooks animate the promenade. Throughout, Riverside Park South has helped define a new paradigm of urban waterfront parks in which the highest principles of environmentalism, sustainability, urbanism, place-making and civic values are equally embraced.

Credits

Clients:  Riverside South Planning Corporation, The Carlyle Group, Extell Development Company, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
Construction Manager: Bovis Lend Lease
MEP Engineering: Philip Habib Associates
Structural & Marine Engineer: Olko Engineering
Planning: Parsons Brinkerhoff, The Urban Assembly
Zoning / Legal: Sieve Paget & Riesel