The World Trade Center’s Elevated Liberty Park Will Open This Summer

The city will cut the ribbon on another landscaped elevated this park this summer with the opening of the World Trade Center‘s Liberty Park—although no exact opening date has been pinned down, reports DNA Info. The park, which will measure just over an acre and rise 25 feet, is sited next to the Santiago Calatrava-designed St. Nicholas National Shrine (still under construction) and will provide an overhead view of the 9/11 Memorial and a leafy pocket of respite for FiDi workers, dwellers and tourists alike. But more practically, the park will give way to a pleasant pedestrian connection across West Street, on top of hiding the entrance to the WTC’s security hub that sits beneath.

Images: St. Nicholas National Shrine and park via Calatrava Architects (top) and rendering of Liberty Park (bottom) via Port Authority

Just like the High Line, the landscaping of Liberty Park has been carefully planned with “more than 50 trees [that] will dot the landscape, including a sapling descended from Anne Frank’s white Horse Chestnut Tree planted earlier this week,” says DNA Info. There will also be a 25-foot-high, 300-foot-long wall covered in vegetation running along the base of the park to the edge of the access staircase.

The Living Wall at WTC Liberty Park pic.twitter.com/WyxWdZOizK

— WTCProgress (@WTCProgress) May 13, 2016

Work Continues at Liberty Park Plaza Seating Area pic.twitter.com/WT73iOcVFi

— WTCProgress (@WTCProgress) May 18, 2016

Eventually, Liberty Park will connect to another elevated walkway extending from Battery Park City over the West Side Highway. A Port Authority spokesman told DNA Info that Brookfield Place is in the still process of finishing the overpass, and that Brookfield will be a main access point for the park.

[Via DNA Info]

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