## Battery Park City

Hudson River Park begins at Battery Park, on the southern tip of Manhattan. The portion of the park in lower Manhattan includes the only section not at the water's edge. Battery Park is the connecting point for residential Battery Park City and the financial district of lower Manhattan.

Next to Battery Park is the newly constructed 3.5-acre Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Park, named after the former New York deputy mayor, board of education president, city planning commission chairman, and city council member. This new park was designed by architects Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti, landscape architect Laurie Olin of the Olin Partnership, and garden designer Lynden B. Miller. The building in the park houses a café in the lower level and elevated platforms above, from which to view the scenery. One of the distinguishing features of the park is a hexagonal Holocaust memorial museum, designed by Kevin Roche, that borders to the north.

A 1.5-mile esplanade extends the entire length of Battery Park City. When the esplanade was completed in 1985, it became the first public waterfront park built in New York City since 1954, when the Brooklyn Heights Promenade was completed.

Belvedere Park is a 1.6-acre park that serves as a transition between the Battery Park City open space and the mammoth office towers that make up the World Financial Center.

North of Wagner Park, in Battery Park City, the board of education will be constructing a new grammar school with a playground that will be open to residents after school hours.

## Tribeca

In Tribeca, the public will have access to two piers—25 and 26—which will be connected by a suspension bridge. Pier 25 will hold a large play area as well as several multiuse courts. In addition, it will be the location of a public boat dock, a water taxi stop, and food and rental concessions. Pier 26 will focus on education and research activities through demonstration gardens and an estuarium.

Pier 32 is severely decayed and will be made into a nesting platform to attract waterfowl, osprey, and harbor seals. Pier 34 is built over the Holland Tunnel and was rebuilt recently as two linked finger piers. The south finger is a public pier, and the north finger is used for service and emergency access to the tunnel vent shaft. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New York State Department of Transportation control that pier.