Teardrop Park

Related people

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (landscape architect)
Michael Mercil (artist)
Ann Hamilton (artist)

Date

2004

Location

North and Central America->United States->New York->New York->Manhattan (boroughs)->Battery Park City

Description

Teardrop Park is the culmination of five years of work and collaboration between Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (landscape architects), artists Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil, and the Battery Park City Authority.
The park is surrounded by high rise apartment buildings. The bluestone hauled into the two acre park is exaggerated in scale to form low pockets and high prospects of views within and beyond the buildings. A tilted lawn on the north end of the park is strategically placed to take advantage of the sunniest area of the site.
The park program focuses on a series of dedicated children's spaces that include a reading area at one promontory, a sand play area with a water play feature, and a slide, all integrated into the park's rock formations and connected by a network of winding paths. At the heart of the park is massive layered stone ice wall.
"Teardrop Park is an environmentally sustainable park, which uses almost 100 percent reclaimed water from the Solaire, the nation's first green high-rise residential tower located to the south of the park, and a collection of rainwater for irrigation." From www.batteryparkcity.org
Keywords: United States, New York, Kings County, Manhattan, landscapes (environments), planned landscapes, parks, outdoor spaces, views. Submitted by Lisa Cutshaw.

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