New York has a park that seems to float. Little Island rises above the Hudson River at Pier 55, between 13th and 14th Streets in Hudson River Park — a 2.4-acre green oasis that opened on May 21, 2021, and has been bringing smiles to Manhattan’s west side ever since.
The park’s famous “tulip-pot” structure was inspired by the old wooden pilings of Pier 54 still visible in the river, and it was brought to life by Heatherwick Studio with landscape architect Signe Nielsen of MNLA. The site carries a remarkable history, too: the original Pier 54 welcomed survivors of the Titanic to safety, and the steel archway of the old Cunard-White Star building still greets visitors at the South Bridge entrance.
Inside, rolling lawns, intimate gardens and overlooks with river and skyline views are woven together with two performance spaces set right into the landscape: The Amph, a 700-seat open-air amphitheater, and The Glade, a 200-seat venue. Most plantings are native, chosen to create habitat for pollinators and birds and to offer color and texture in every season — a choreography of seasonal delight that makes an autumn visit especially lovely. Free audio tours, including a landscape tour and a pier history tour, add stories as you wander.
Getting there is easy: Little Island opens at 6:00 a.m. every day of the year, and through October 31 it stays open until 11:00 p.m. Enter by the South Bridge near 13th Street or the North Bridge near 14th Street — the A, C, E and L trains to 14th Street and 8th Avenue leave you a short walk west across the West Side Highway.
Photo: Mike Peel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
