Landscape Information
Situated between the East River and the FDR Drive at the base of the Queensboro Bridge, this approximately two-acre park includes a pavilion and sculptural installation designed to stand out amidst the surrounding high-density urban environment. The site was used for decades by the Sanitation Department as a waste transfer station until 1985 when the station was decommissioned and an eighteen-story hotel was proposed. A consortium of organizations including the Greenacre Foundation, the Parks Council, and the Municipal Art Society protested the commercial development. Eventually the hotel project was abandoned, and a public pavilion was commissioned. Funded by the Greenacre Foundation, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Rockefeller University, and the Hospital for Special Surgery, it was designed by landscape architect Nicholas Quennell, who had been involved in the protest, and sculptor Alice Aycock.
The exterior of the transfer station was removed to expose its steel superstructure, and a 12,000-square foot open-air pavilion was designed below—carpeted with hexagonal pavers and framed by a fence intended to resemble a ship railing. In 1995, a year after the pavilion opened, Aycock installed East River Roundabout—an 80-foot-long aluminum helix—atop the superstructure. Funded by public donations and maintained by the Municipal Art Society, the artwork spirals through the pavilion’s roof and is reminiscent of a rollercoaster. The piece is intended to evoke the weightlessness of Fred Astaire’s dancing and the clamorous energy of its surroundings. In 2014 conservation work on the sculpture was undertaken and the superstructure was painted orange-red, as requested by Aycock. Four years later the pavilion was redesigned to include an elevated lawn panel, new railings, and benches. In 2024 a terrace, by WXY architecture + urban design, was installed north of the pavilion, connecting it to the waterfront trail below.
