A Tour of the Amazing Hudson River Park
In May of 2010, I posted a blog called Big Changes Along The Hudson River, explaining how abandoned and decaying buildings and piers along the riverfront were being converted into 100 acres of lawns, gardens, trees, playgrounds, refurbished piers, and paths for the public to enjoy, thanks to Friends of Hudson River Park. As a long-time supporter, the blog was about a gala that MSLO hosted for this most worthy cause. Recently, I joined the Board of Directors of Friends of Hudson River Park and last week, I was invited for an official tour and to offer my gardening expertise. From my office, I can see much of the park and have a pretty keen idea of what plantings have thrived and what has not. I have noticed that simpler, native species do better than fussier, more complex ones. We traveled by golf cart, beginning near our offices and going south to one end of the park and then north to the upper tip. It was so wonderful to see how much has changed, how much more is planned, how nicely the park is maintained, and how it’s so well utilized by the community.
1 Here I am arriving at Hudson River Park with Heather Kirkland - MSLO Administrative Manager, Special Projects.
2 A group shot with Hudson River Park Trust’s Matthew Post - Director of Horticulture, Madelyn Wils - President, and Friends of Hudson River Park's Blake Beatty - Director of Development
3 Across from my offices is the Habitat Garden, designed as a sanctuary for small organisms, like insects, birds, and small animals. It is closed to the public.
4 The red-hulled boat is a historic lightship called Frying Pan. Now docked at Pier 66 Maritime, it is one of 13 lightships remaining from more than 100 built. The US Coast Guard used lightships as floating lighthouses and to mark the entrances to harbors.
5 The Frying Pan actually sank and spent three years at the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay before being salvaged and brought to Chelsea Piers, where it is now part of a fun restaurant/bar.
6 My offices are located in the landmark Starrett-Lehigh building. Dating from 1932, this amazing and massive structure occupies an entire city block and was constructed so that freight trains and trucks could enter the vast ground-floor freight yard to load and unload freight for the businesses located in the floors above.
7 A carousel is found at Pier 62, a menagerie of 33 hand-carved and painted wooden Hudson River Valley animals. The roof over the carousel is a living 'green' one.
8 Pier 62 also features an impressive 15,000 square foot skate park that offers excitement for all levels of skate boarders and roller bladers.
9 At the entrance to the Chelsea section of Hudson River Park is the Display Garden, designed by Lynden B. Miller as a four-season garden. With its Knockout Roses and colorful foliage, everyone loves it!
10 Vibrant salvia in the Display Garden
11 These late-blooming anemones are ‘Honorine Jobert’.
12 You can learn to sail at Pier 25 in Tribeca.
13 The sailing school offers several levels of community sailing on the river.
14 The Hudson River Park Bikeway is the busiest bike path in the United States. It runs the entire length of Hudson River Park from Battery Place at the southern tip of Manhattan to W59th St. where it connects with Riverside Park South.
15 If you don’t have a bike of your own, you can also rent one in the park. Bike education classes are also offered to those who don't know how to ride.
16 These piles are the remains of an old pier and will be kept like this to benefit the underwater wildlife. The river has been slowly re-vitalizing and now has 70 varieties of fish, including white perch, striped bass, sturgeon, and eels.
17 This is Pier 54, which is still in pretty bad shape. Interestingly, this is where the Titanic was to dock on her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK in April of 1912.
18 This building is the current City of New York Department of Sanitation. It will eventually be turned into parkland.
19 Another view of the Sanitation Building - I can just imagine how great it will look as part of the park.
20 A view of Jersey City, New Jersey across the Hudson - My 5 siblings and I were born in Jersey City.
21 This is a portion of the Greenwich Village Esplanade planted with Zelcova trees, a hardwood tree in the elm family.
22 Millenium Garden, located at Charles St., is the home of The Apple, designed by Stephen Weiss, the late husband of world-renowned fashion designer, Donna Karan. This garden, dedicated to him, needs a bit of a makeover.
23 This is the eastern end of Pier 45 in Greenwich Village, an 850-foot-long pier that offers shade structures and seating areas.
24 At the northern end of Tribeca there are 3 public tennis courts.
25 This structure is the vent shaft for Holland Tunnel. Completed in 1927, it was the first passenger-car tunnel in the area.
26 A galvanized steel sculpture by Mark Gibian
27 Pier 26 in Tribeca is currently under construction. When completed, it will include a habitat planting zone, lawns, seating areas, overlooks, historic boats, and a variety of active and passive recreation opportunities.
28 To visually improve the construction site, a volunteer program was organized to paint the cement construction barriers.
29 This is a Metasequoia, or Dawn Redwood - A very fast-growing deciduous conifer, this specimen can reach heights of 200-feet!
30 Pier 25 is the longest pier in Hudson River Park and if you're in the mood for beach volley ball, this is the place!
31 It's also the place for basketball.
32 A view of Battery Park City, a 92-acre community at the southwestern tip of Manhattan
33 A view of the new One World Trade Center
34 Pier 25 also has really fun playgrounds.
35 The playground has water features, however, that day, there was a drain problem, forming a wading pool.
36 There's another great playground at Pier 51 in Greenwich Village.
37 This playground has a spiral ramp leading to a pirate’s lookout in the playground’s center.
38 This is the Aids Memorial in Greenwich Village. The quote engraved into the black granite bench reads: 'I can sail without wind, I can row without oars, but I cannot part from my friend without tears.'
39 Pier 83 at 43rd Street is where you catch the Circle Line, the exciting boat tour around Manhattan Island.
40 Next door at Pier 84, you'll find another boat tour upon New York Water Taxi.
41 Just further north is the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, where you can tour the new Space Shuttle Pavilion.
42 This sculpture, located at 55th at Pier 96 at Clinton, called Private Passage, was created by Malcolm Cochran. Made of bronze and zinc, this giant bottle contains a representation of an interior stateroom from the ocean liner, Queen Mary.
43 Back near the Starrett Lehigh building - Trumpet vine and clematis growing on a park maintenance building
44 Stone Field, located at 22nd St. at Pier 63, contains large boulders from quarries in New York State and Pennsylvania, that were chosen for their special shapes.
45 Here are some detail shots of some other plants growing in the amazing Hudson River Park. - Rosa rugosa
46 A thistle-like flower
47 A type of verbascum
48 Lobelia
49 Veronica speedwell
50 And another type of veronica
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
What a variety of things to do in one place. and, what a unique place to do a variety of things.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | August 27th, 2012 at 12:35 am
Gael, I looked at some of the kits and they are pretty, but there is no way i could afford any of them. But, I do thank you for the information.
I hope you'll go back and gather more info for another Blog one day.
Again, thank you,
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | August 27th, 2012 at 12:40 am
Wow, I'm not much of a city fan but that tour was really enlightening and enjoyable, thank you Martha!
Posted by: Donna Monaghan | August 27th, 2012 at 3:28 am
Thank you for the tour, I live in the Midwest now but I am a girl from New York, Long Island and miss all of the sites. Martha thank you for taking care of our environment and making things better.
Posted by: ga447 | August 27th, 2012 at 6:52 am
Thanks for providing the link to the blog, Big Changes Along The Hudson River Martha, I wasn't sure if I read it the first time around! The before and after pictures are amazing. Your community is so lucky to have an organization like Friends of Hudson River Park and congratulations to you for joining the Board of Directors. It's encouraging to know that people will get out and enjoy the outdoors if afforded a clean and aesthetically pleasing environment. Thanks for the tour Martha, by the way, love your shoes!
Posted by: Cindy F | August 27th, 2012 at 7:56 am
Martha,
Oh how the park has changed. I remember the carousel from when I went to the gala at MSLO. Thanks for this great update!
Posted by: KLBrown | August 27th, 2012 at 8:16 am
Martha Thanx For Sharing! Although I live in New york,I have Never Been To the Piers Yet. Its Amazing What is there to see and like a really nice place for A Picnic And to Relax...
Posted by: Darlene Martinez | August 27th, 2012 at 8:41 am
Hi Martha, How great that you have shared another terrific blog about the Hudson River Park that is close to your offices at the Starret-Lehigh building! I certainly recall the original blog on May 11, 2010 and that one was fantastic, also! How great that you recently joined the Board of Directors of Friends of the Hudson River Park and then you were invited to an official tour to offer your great gardening expertise! How lucky they are to get such great help from you! I love the websites you gave us, too! These photos and information all about the Hudson River Park are superior and before and after photos showing so many improvements are fabulous! All of the people at the new park certainly looked happy to enjoy every new part of it! I love photos #!&2 of you and friends-you look so happy to be part of this great project! What great tours we got to take on this blog and the May 11, 2010 one! Sure wish I could be there to enjoy all of that fantastic Hudson River Park! Thank you so much, Martha, for being so generous and inspirational to all of us! Sure enjoyed your tweet last night about taking your dogs to their favorite East Hampton Beach! Off to see The Daily Wag about "Having a Look at a Vintage Automobile"! Have another great day! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | August 27th, 2012 at 9:54 am
I love the carousel. Some great ideas for my next NYC trip. Thank you!
Posted by: Holiday Baker Man | August 27th, 2012 at 11:12 am
Hi Martha,
The park is amazing alright with all the playgrounds, gardens, and activities. It must attract a lot of tourists as well as the locals so well worth all the efforts put forth by Friends of Hudson River Park. No doubt they need to offer a big piece of change to get some businesses to relocate, kind of like if they don’t fit, they get shipped but that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t mind touring the Space Shuttle Pavilion. I wondered about transportation so thanks for pointing out the tour busses and the water Taxis and I noticed there were cars parked along the bike paths too. I have a New Yorker follower on Twitter who talked about being out shopping and getting home late so I asked what mode of transportation she used. She said the water Taxi which I thought was pretty cool. I can’t imagine being without a car but then I don’t live in Manhattan. Trish
~
P.S. We’ve had enough rain from Isaac to wade in our own pools in the streets and we’re still getting squalls from the outer bands and tornado warnings from some cells in those bands. There’s lots of peripheral activity from this huge storm. I hate to think about it landing in Louisiana as a hurricane but it seems to be strengthening.
Posted by: Trish | August 27th, 2012 at 11:45 am
Beautiful tour! I must visit this one day thanks for the tour Martha!
Posted by: Sonya | August 27th, 2012 at 11:52 am
Wow, the Park is really beautiful, full of things to do and enjoy.
Thanks for the tour Martha.
I hope to visit the USA one day.
Posted by: Maria Lúcia | August 27th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
I like your blog Martha! You always show us fascinating things that we may never get to see. Thank You.
Posted by: Jan | August 27th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Love the fact that we see parks, gardens, businesses, recreation...all as part of this! Fabulous!
Posted by: Nantucket Daffodil | August 27th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
When I have visited NY, I had enough from Central Park, because the forest and parks are more beautiful and less worked by human in my country. I left CP and I go to Hudson River. Really great place.
Thank you to show this
Posted by: Josey | August 28th, 2012 at 4:33 am
I always learn something from your posts. Thank you for taking your time and help NYC become more beautiful. It is very much appreciated.
Posted by: Helena Pereira | August 28th, 2012 at 6:27 am
Beautiful blog today. My husband and I visited an exhibit of Dale Chihuly in Nashville on our Fiftieth Ann. 2010. His glass pieces were all over the gardens and lit up at night. So beautiful. What talent.
Posted by: Carol | August 28th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Oh I didn't know the Titanic was supposed to dock there. Very interesting!
Posted by: neil | August 29th, 2012 at 10:03 am
Your outfit-tres chic! Congrats to this NGO for landing you on their board of directors!
Posted by: Karen | August 30th, 2012 at 1:19 am
Thanks for sharing these wonderful pictures. I read a book recently, entitled 97 Orchard. I was just wondering where Orchard was/is in location to these piers. It is a great book about early immigrants coming to NY from other countries and how food played a big part of their lives here in the country.
Posted by: Virginia Yahl | August 30th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Martha, I visited the website and there wasn't any mention of gardens there. I hope you raise the profile of the gardens in the park...I'm sure you will! Lee
Posted by: Lee Recca | August 31st, 2012 at 10:35 am
Hi Martha,
I grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY, loving the Hudson River so it is nice to see this. I miss the beautiful greenery of the area. My parents and grandparents always had beautiful vegetable and flower gardens. Now we live in San Antonio but we still grow a garden, my husband's favorite hobby. In fact, he has built a business from gardening over the last 2 years by selling seeds and products online and providing planting information to readers. Most of his customers live up North.
Posted by: Juanita Schulze | September 6th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Yes, it is beautiful and I especially enjoyed walking the Highline with Marlene, AJ and Michael.
Posted by: judith walker | September 8th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Hi Martha glad your are helping direct HRP. I love this park , but what happened to all the food vendors this year ? Very sad that there are none.
Posted by: Bob Russo | September 10th, 2012 at 11:26 pm