Since the closing of a city-owned landfill in 1963, 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.
Main Street Garden Park
Thomas Balsley Associates was selected from an outreach to international design firms to design the first new park for the Dallas Central Business District in 50 years. A key component in the downtown revitalization strategy, Main Street Garden Park required the razing of two city blocks of buildings and garages making way for its transformation into a vibrant...
Chelsea Waterside Park
In 1986, Thomas Balsley Associates was asked by the Chelsea Waterside Park Association to translate this community’s vision for a waterfront park into a design document that would be used to plan the new Route 9-A and the proposed Hudson River Park. Ten years later, when funding for the Chelsea Waterside Park was identified, Thomas Balsley Associates won an in...
Larchmont Yacht Club
Larchmont Yacht Club is the second-oldest yacht club in the United States. Conceived in 1880 on the cleft rocks of Larchmont Manor, the club has grown to a membership in excess of 600, with a continued mission to instill and enhance an interest in yachting and the spirit of sportsmanship in members and their families. Set within a mature forest of deciduous tr...
Dubai Expo 2020
From October 2021 to April 2022, the City of Dubai will host the World Expo: a large-scale International Registered Exhibition that will bring nations together with universal themes and immersive experiences. It will comprise an entire new city, built on a 1,083-acre site between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The Expo site is organized around a central plaza linked to ...