Expansion of Hudson Yards green space could be NYC’s most expensive park project ever
Rendering via MVVA and the Hudson Yards Development Corporation
The $374 million plan to extend green space at Hudson Yards would be the most expensive park project in New York City history, Crain’s reported Thursday. Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced financing had been secured for the extension of Hudson Park and Boulevard, which currently runs between West 33rd and West 36th Streets. This funding allows the park to extend to West 39th Street.
Phase 1 of Hudson Park & Boulevard via Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Adrian Benepe, a senior vice president at the Trust for Public Land, told Crain’s, “That is an astounding price tag,” referring to the $125 million per acre set aside for Hudson Park. “It blows out of the water by far the previous most-expensive park that I had ever heard of, which is the High Line.”
The High Line, the elevated freight rail-turned-park first opened in 2009, cost about $36 million per acre. The city says the high price tag is due to the logistics of the site; it sits across an Amtrak rail line that has to stay active.
The park, whose development is being led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) and Tishman Speyer, will add needed green space in a neighborhood of sky-high commercial and residential buildings.
“Every New Yorker deserves well designed public space,” de Blasio said in a press release published last month. “In a growing neighborhood like Hudson Yards, three acres of new parks is a vital investment in the wellbeing of residents for generations to come.”
Rendering via MVVA and the Hudson Yards Development Corporation
The first phase of the park opened in August 2015. Even with financing secured, groundbreaking is expected to begin sometime in late 2020, with the extension opening in the winter of 2023. The design process will begin this fall.
[Via Crain’s]
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