Hudson River Park

AKRF has provided a broad range of planning, permitting, and engineering services for Hudson River Park since its inception.

Hudson River Park, the longest riverfront park in the United States, continues to transform Manhattan’s western waterfront with 550 acres of parks, playgrounds, community facilities, and a multi-use trailway.

We first led the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement and its associated assessments of land use and neighborhood character; historic and archaeological resources; waterfront revitalization; air quality; noise; infrastructure; and energy. AKRF also prepared the state and federal permit applications to allow park construction to occur in the Hudson River.

Recent projects have included Little Island, Pier 57, and the “Day’s End” in-water sculpture.

Design Honors

2024 Municipal Art Society of New York Masterworks Award for Best Adaptive Reuse – Pier 57

2023 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award – Pier 57

2023 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award – Pier 57

2023 ULI New York Award for Excellence in Development – Little Island

2022 ACEC New York Engineering Excellence Diamond Award – Little Island

2021 ENR Best of the Best Award – Little Island

Newsworthy

“NYC’s Largest Rooftop Park Now Officially Open at Pier 57”

Little Island Opens in 2021

The opening of Little Island in 2021 brought an exciting new 2.4-acre public oasis to Hudson River Park. AKRF prepared a critical sun exposure study and concluded the project would not cause significant adverse impacts to aquatic ecology due to shading. Adjacent to the pier, we supported landside transportation and civil engineering efforts for a wide new pedestrian path and improved bikeway linking Little Island with other sections of the park.

Market 57 is a new dining destination with over one dozen kiosks at Pier 57 on the Hudson River waterfront.

Environmental planning for Pier 57 and Day’s End

AKRF led environmental planning and permitting for the renovation and restoration of historic Pier 57 along the Hudson River waterfront into a new mixed-use destination.

The building now includes 320,000 square feet of office space for Google, two performance venues, a 100-seat capacity restaurant and tasting room, ground-floor retail, and an 80,000-square-foot public park on the rooftop.

We also provided environmental review and permitting support for Day’s End, artist David Hammon’s skeletal re-creation of Pier 52 to be installed in the Hudson River courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

An amendment to the Hudson River Park Act for installation of the sculpture within the park cleared a vote in the New York State Assembly in 2018.