Summer ’08 @ Pier One open through end of September

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Tuesday announced the extension of Summer ’08 @ Pier One!  Since opening to the public on June 26, more than 140,000 people have visited the temporary park on Pier 1, located in the future Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Due to its success, this summer’s interim park, which includes spectacular views of New York Harbor, will remain open to the public through September 28.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation will begin actual park construction of Pier 1 after the closing of the interim “pop-up” park. This new section of Brooklyn Bridge Park will include over 1,200 linear feet of new waterfront promenade along the East River, 6 acres of lawn with spectacular views of the Brooklyn Bridge and New York Harbor, plus a new children’s playground.

Drawing in this summer’s crowds was the temporary public artwork “The New York City Waterfalls” by Olafur Eliasson, presented by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the City of New York. Visitors to Pier 1 have come from over 28 foreign countries and throughout the United States, as well as neighborhoods across Brooklyn and New York City.  All have taken advantage of delicious food and beverages from Pier 1’s café with concessions from local purveyor, RICE, along with picnic tables, benches, bike racks, landscaping with trees, a sand area, and grass. 

The 26,000 square foot site, designed by landscape architect Susannah Drake’s dlandstudio, extends 315 feet out onto the East River and offers picture-perfect views of the Manhattan skyline. Visitors can also observe construction of the larger Brooklyn Bridge Park through a transparent safety fence at the western edge of Pier 1, and renderings and descriptions illustrating the future park’s design which are displayed throughout the site. 

The BBPDC broke ground on the piers area of Brooklyn Bridge Park on February 13, 2008, and demolition has continued throughout the summer.  Twelve acres of the park, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, are currently open.  The first sections of the park south of the Brooklyn Bridge are expected to open by the end of 2009.  Brooklyn Bridge Park will reconnect New Yorkers with the Brooklyn waterfront, replacing abandoned piers, parking lots, and storage sheds with opportunities to play sports, stroll, or lounge at the water’s edge.  When complete, Brooklyn Bridge Park, designed by the landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, will be an 85-acre park that stretches along the Brooklyn waterfront from Atlantic Avenue to Jay Street, north of the Manhattan Bridge.

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