New York City’s newest park, “Little Island,” opened just in time for a steaming weekend, drawing thousands of grateful visitors to the 2.4-acre refuge floating on the Hudson at the site of the old Pier 55. Thank fashion legend Diane von Furstenberg and her Hollywood mogul hubby, Barry Diller, for this gift — and for persevering over a handful of well-funded cranks who sued to stop it.
The power couple announced their plan to fund the Thomas Heatherwick-designed gem as the latest addition to the Hudson River Park in 2014.
But what was originally a $130 million project got mired in legal harassment and repeated pauses, as the letterhead organization The City Club of New York sued repeatedly, with the backing of real estate giant Douglas Durst, who reportedly resents the Hudson River Park Trust.
But justice (and regular New Yorkers) triumphed in the end, and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation supplied $235 million of the final $265 million construction cost.
Call it The Little Island That Could.
