Pier 57 – NYC’s Largest Rooftop Park

Hi friends, welcome back! I’ve got a brand-new NYC park to share with you all today that I previously mentioned in my Little Island Spring post. Pier 57 opened to the public in April 2022 and is located off 15^th Street in between Chelsea Piers and Little Island. This rooftop park is almost two acres and open from 7 am until 10pm daily. To get to the park, you go inside the building and take an elevator up to the top floor (there are signs everywhere so you can’t get lost). I went during the week after I visited Little Island so I had almost the entire rooftop to myself.

Pier 57 originally opened in 1954 as a terminal for Grace Line and then in 1969 it became the Hudson Pier Depot for the New York City Transit Authority. The depot closed in 2003 and the pier had been closed until 2008 when The Hudson River Park Trust put a Request for Proposal to renovate the park. RXR Youngwoo and Baupost won the proposal and have invested over $410 million for restoration. This pier is listed in the National Register of Historic Places so the team has been working with the New York State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service to make sure the restoration is sensitive to the historic nature of the structure.

This pier doesn’t look like something special that would be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, but if you (figuratively) look under the surface, you will see its unique architecture different from the other piers. There are three concrete caissons that support the weight of the pier and are like a basement. For those of you, like me, who had never heard of a caisson before, I took this picture from Pier 57’s website to better show the architectural technique. This style is very different from the neighboring Little Island that is held up by tulip like structures in the sea.

Over fourteen years later and the building on the pier is still under construction, but the rooftop is open for everyone to enjoy. Per Pier 57’s website, “In Fall 2022, a new public living room, environmental tech classrooms for Hudson River Park’s River Project educators, a food market curated by the James Beard Foundation, and additional community spaces under Jamestown’s oversight will join City Winery on the ground floor in welcoming and serving the public”. Once the food market is finished, I think this area will be incredibly popular and it’ll be like a waterfront Chelsea Market.

Pier 57 receives no public funding and will be financially self-sufficient with most of the revenue coming from Google’s rented offices, City Winery (which I still need to go to), and the future food market.

I was afraid to step on the grass, it looks so pristine, but it’s safe to sit on and have a picnic. There’s also plenty of seating along the perimeter of the rooftop with spectacular views.

My favorite part of the park is the incredible views of Little Island, Lower Manhattan, the Hudson River, and Midtown. I felt like I was on top of the world here, even though I was only about five stories up.

I believe once the food stalls open, Pier 57 will be incredibly popular! In the meantime, it’s a great spot for views of Little Island, Lower Manhattan, Chelsea Piers, and Hudson Yards. I think it’s worth coming up here and about half an hour would suffice to really take in the sights, especially if you’re checking out Little Island next door.  This would also be a nice spot for a lunch break or just to get some fresh air if you live or work in the Meatpacking District. In my opinion, the more public green spaces in the city, the better. The Hudson River Park Trust has been doing a great job restoring all the abandoned piers along the Hudson River and I’m looking forward to checking out more!