Since the closing of a city owned landfill in 1963, the dream of the site’s transformation into Ferry Point Waterfront Park has been a long, complex process. The new Ferry Point Waterfront Park will be a long linear eastern ecological extension of the previously built and conventionally programmed western Ferry Point Park. Part of a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, this new park extends east from the anchorage of the Whitestone Bridge approximately 0.7 miles along the East River. It is intended to become what the actively programmed western park is not, an environmentally focused place of passive recreation and contemplation.
The armature of this long linear waterfront park is a system of earthworks and grade changes that create an upper park and a lower park within a relatively long and narrow span. To further articulate the park, a circulation system of diagonal cross grain connectors defines a discrete series of coherent landscape spaces while elongating and accentuating the distance from the upland margin of the site to the waterfront. This path system redirects and choreographs user movements, crenellating the “perceived” water’s edge and revealing site. The interstices of the path system are a series of swatches that vary in texture, tone and ecology. The path system operates along the interface of two landscape typologies affording visitors a varied experience while strolling along the designated path system. These eco-swatches are large enough to be viable ecologies and to accommodate unforeseen future programmatic changes. The cultural ecology will complement the ecological underpinning of the park. The plan includes an urban beach, small boat center and a waterfront restaurant, all of which will help transform Ferry Point Waterfront Park from blight to bright.