A floating park on the Hudson River, a new Manhattan attraction

The extravagant garden that appears to float on stilts in the shape of a tulip in the shape of a lavender in the Hudson River threatens to be one of the great attractions of Manhattan.

“It is an oasis that offers everything that is interesting, exotic and enjoyable we can imagine.”

It opened Friday, four years after a dispute between businessman Barry Diller and a real estate businessman who threatened to thwart the project.

The new park is called Little Island (Little Island) and is also known as Diller’s Island, the former CEO of 20th Century Fox. The Diller Foundation and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Faustenberg, contributed $ 260 million to the project.

The construction adds to a series of new sidewalks that have appeared on Manhattan’s West Side in the past twenty years, however It has design features that distinguish it from others.

The flowers, trees, and performance spaces of Little Island are anchored in 123 concrete pillars that the park’s creators describe as “lavender stacks.”. The piles are of different heights, so the park has small hills. Access to the park is via two bridges.

Designed by Thoma Hitherwick, the ship’s creator, the curious structure is at the heart of the Hudson Yards, the skyscraper complex that has become one of Manhattan’s new landmarks, about 20 blocks above Little Island, on the same beach as Hudson.

Diller, who also contributed large sums to the High Line – a ride created on ancient highland train tracks – compares Little Island to an enchanted forest or a visit to the Land of Oz.

“It is an oasis that offers everything that is interesting, exotic and enjoyable that we can imagine,” he said.

The project was launched in 2014, but has remained suspended due to several lawsuits in which it was said that the park was planned without interference from the public and that it endangered marine life. The lawsuits were filed by the City Club of New York, a non-profit organization. But it was later learned that the person who promoted them was actually real estate entrepreneur Douglas Dorset, who was defected as director of Friends of Hudson River Park, responsible for raising money for the project.