New York's Pier 57 Rehabilitation Into 'Super Pier' Releases New Renderings

Pier 57 aka “SuperPier” will undergo a long-planned rehabilitation and conversion as announced by Seth Pinsky, executive vice president at RXR Realty during the Municipal Arts Society’s (MAS) 2015 Summit for NYC. With that, new renderings of the project were released featuring impressive features, NY Curb reported.

Apart from the new design of the pier, Pinksy also revealed that they have secured financing for the project as well as talks with the Hudson River Park Trust.

The "Super Pier" is located at the foot of West 15th Street and fronts the 5-mile-long Hudson River Park that spans 800 feet. The project would need a $350 million budget for the development of the 450,000-square-foot pier. This could generate millions of dollars of revenue for the Hudson River Park Trust while creating hundreds of jobs in the area.

The pier will become a new destination for both visitors and locals. It will include 250,000 square feet of office space for Google, and a 170,000-square-foot food and retail market for Anthony Bourdain. It also has an elevated park with an outdoor movie and performance amphitheater situated on the roof and will be used for screenings for the Tribeca Film Festival, 6sqft reported.

RXR Realty will be working on the project with Young Woo & Associates, and Handel Architects and !Melk Landscape Architecture and Urban Design which will start construction during the first half of 2017 and will be completed on the early months of 2018.

This historic pier was built between 1950 and 1954 with 90 percent of its weight supported by buoyancy which is a technique developed in World War II. For over three decades, the pier also functioned as a parking garage for New York City Transit buses.

When the pier was moved in 2003, it was left unused. Pinsky defined the pier's current state as “a shell of its former self, succumbing slowly to the elements.”

Prior to this, the pier was supposed to be restored as “Leonardo at Pier 57" in 2004, a two-story pedestrian street with Italian retail, crafts and a cultural center designed by Cipriani Restaurant Group/Plaza Construction Corp. and the Witkoff Group but the project didn't pursue.