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Will the Island of Manhattan Gets its Own Beach??

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Going to be the beach in Manhattan has always been an oxymoron. But – just possibly – not anymore.

The Gansevoort Peninsula is being looked at as the site of the first public beach in Gotham.

At a board meeting held last Thursday, the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) named James Corner Field Operations as the project’s designer. The group operates the 550-acre green area that goes along Manhattan’s western coast.

HRPT is responsible for designing, developing, constructing, and maintaining the 550-acre Hudson River Park in New York City, which extends for five miles along the Hudson River waterfront from Battery Park City to 59th Street.

The Gansevoort Peninsula, Crain’s New York Business reports, is “a 5.5-acre outcropping off Manhattan’s West Side at Little West 12th Street that was once part of Manhattan’s 13th Avenue. The area was later used as a salt repository by the Department of Sanitation before the agency turned the space over to the trust.”

After demolishing the department’s salt shed in 2016, Crain’s continues, “the trust issued a request for proposals seeking ideas to turn the vacant lot into a waterfront park that will feature a southern-facing beach front, which likely will be composed of rocks and double as a resiliency measure to absorb floodwaters.”

“Along Hudson River Park’s 4 miles, we’ve been able to showcase some of the best landscape architects in the field,” Madelyn Wils, head of the trust, said in a statement. “I’m pleased that the exceptional design firm James Corner Field Operations will join the ranks of the talented teams that have helped make Hudson River Park one of the great waterfront parks in the country.”

As set forth in the group’s enabling legislation, the mission of the Hudson River Park Trust is to encourage, promote and expand public access to the Hudson River, to promote water-based recreation, and enhance the natural, cultural, and historic aspects of the river from Battery Park City to West 59th Street in New York City for residents and visitors to the area. The Trust has authority over the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of Hudson River Park.

Andrew Cuomo’s fiscal year 2020 Executive Budget proposes a total of $23 million in new capital funding for HRPT. This funding will fulfill the Governor’s commitment to complete the park in its entirety, in partnership with New York City.

“All told,” Crain’s added, “the park will undergo around $900 million worth of projects that include new parks and sports fields, RXR Realty and Youngwoo & Associate’s commercial office pier, and a pier-turned-green space funded by media mogul Barry Diller, which has been the subject of a high-profile feud with fellow billionaire Douglas Durst.”

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