On Manhattan’s newest “beach”, nARCHITECTS has designed a park pavilion for the Henry Hudson River Park Trust. Shifting from its previous mercantile and industrial use, the site has been transformed into the new 5.65-acre Gansevoort Peninsula Park, led by the landscape architect James Corner Field Operations. The park introduces open spaces for the community, including a beach, kayak launch, sports field, and salt march, as well as a boardwalk located on the last remnant of 13th Avenue.
Our park pavilion serves as a gateway between the city and the waterfront. Public amenity and maintenance functions are dispersed across three separate volumes connected by a canopy. Between the volumes and the canopy, a series of portals strategically frame the pedestrian and bike promenade on the east and the park activities to the west.
Highly visible from the Whitney Museum’s terraces to the southeast, the pavilion offers a striking new landmark seen from above. The large openings in the canopy evoke the geometric forms and light effects of Gordon Matta Clark’s cuts into a warehouse on the same site for his 1975 installation Day’s End. Green roofs multiply the native plantings on the ground below, broadcasting the new park’s identity to the surrounding towers.
