Never Built New York: The Pier 55 Park Project for the Hudson River

"A federal court vacated the permit for building Pier 55," reports Audrey Wachs about the splashy project designed by Thomas Heatherwick and funded in large part by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and her financier husband Barry Diller.

The Pier 55 proposal made news since it was first announced in November 2014, attracting criticism as a high-profile symbol of inequality in New York's allocation of open space. The project was sunk, however, by opposition led by a group called the City Club, which "asserted that the pier’s undulating topography, supported by distinctive mushroom-cloud piles, would block views across the river from Hudson River Park, stir up pollutants in the silt, and block sunlight from hitting the water, making it a threat to marine life in the Hudson River estuary."

A decision by Judge Lorna G. Schofield of the United States District Court in the most recent of a series of lawsuits brought against the project by the City Club proved the demise of the project's permit, which was approved in April 2016.