The Big Apple is growing! The megalopolis now enjoys a new green spot, Little Island, an astonishing artificial oasis levitating above the banks of the Hudson.
British architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick is challenging the laws of gravity once again. The enfant terrible of the north London neighborhoods, who had already caused a sensation in Manchester with his explosive B of the Bang, a monumental steel structure unfortunately dismantled in 2009, is now established in southern Manhattan in New York. There, he signs this surprising floating park, a lush green space home to more than 350 species of flowers, trees and shrubs. Located a stone’s throw from the famous High Line (an old railway line reassembled as a promenade suspended above Manhattan), this garden of eden rests on 132 concrete tulips filled with earth, thought of as giant flowerpots but weighing in spite of everything. nearly 68 tonnes each. The work, which is part of a vast project to develop the quays of the Hudson River, also houses an open-air amphitheater with 700 seats. Generously funded by billionaire Barry Diller, president of IAC who manages the dating application Tinder, the island offers New Yorkers a breath of life-saving oxygen after this year in confinement.
