Coney Island will soon have a new competitor in the West Village.
This summer, from the same firm that brought New Yorkers the High Line, a brand new riverside retreat will open on the shores of Manhattan — becoming the borough’s first and only public beach.
“People want a place to lay down and to take their shirt off, and that’s what they’re gonna have here,” James Corner Field Operations architectural designer, Cricket Day, told the Daily Beast of the city’s new Gansevoort Peninsula. The sunbathing spot was first announced in 2019 and was originally slated to open in 2022. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the sandy getaway will now open to the public this coming summer — something to look forward to these days in the throes of winter.
Gansevoort Peninsula promises to supply visitors with a salt marsh, a public art installation called “Day’s End,” an athletic field, a launch for kayaks and small boats, a tree-lined promenade, and waterfront access — but no swimming.
“The Hudson River has made a huge amount of progress in terms of its health since the Clean Water Act was passed in the 1970s, but this is not designed as a swimming beach,” Noreen Doyle, CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust, told the publication, noting that the lack of swimming has been “clear from the get-go.”
Those eager to immerse their mortal bodies in the darkened waters surrounding America’s most manic metropolis will be reassured, however, that another new beach in the works will allow them to wade — but no more than that.
Across the water in Williamsburg, a second beach is currently slated to open in 2028 and will allow visitors to enjoy the river between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
“The goal is to attract folks to the water’s edge, to let them interact with the East River in a way that they never have,” Dave Lombino, management director of development company Two Trees, told NY1 of the Williamsburg beach. “A couple days ago, there were dolphins swimming behind me in the East River. The trajectory of water quality over time is a very sharp improvement.”
