#Little Island at Pier 55

[northameicanblog]

Little island, Manhattan, New York: Little Island at Pier 55 is an artificial island and a public park within Hudson River Park, just off the western coast of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is near the intersection of West Street and West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan. Wikipedia

[olemisekunst]

Little Island (park on piles in the Chelsea district) on Pier 55, along the Hudson River. Very nice vibe in that place and all the different piers on the west side. It was our first proper view of the Manhattan skyline, so we got excited. 🌿🗽🇺🇸

[famousinuniverse]

Little Island, New York, United States: Little Island at Pier 55 is an artificial island and a public park within Hudson River Park, just off the western coast of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is near the intersection of West Street and West 13th Street in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan. Wikipedia

[atotaltaitaitale]

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Little island from Pier 57

Little Island @Pier 55 is an artificial island and a public park within Hudson River Park, just off the western coast of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is near the Meatpacking District and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan. It is located atop Hudson River's Pier 55, connected to the rest of Hudson River Park by footbridges at 13th and 14th Streets. Little Island covers 2.4 acres (0.97 ha) and is supported by 132 pot-shaped structures (called "tulips") suspended above the water. Construction of the structure began in April 2018 and a symbolic cornerstone was laid in December 2018. The project was renamed Little Island in 2019 and opened on May 21, 2021.

[dankusner]

A Gay Brand Endured, and Evolved.

So Did Its Founders.

For 30 years, David Lauterstein has been making jockstraps, harnesses and other gear with his partner.

In a new memoir, he paints a (very) colorful portrait of gay New York in the 1990s.

Sept. 19, 2024 Two bearded white men in tightfitting clothing — one in his 50s, the other in his 60s — pose together in a studio.

As one sits in an armchair, the other leans back against him and smiles.

David Lauterstein, front, and Fred Kearney, co-founders of the gay apparel brand Nasty Pig, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Fashion changes. Jockstraps, not so much.

Those are fighting words to David Lauterstein and Frederick Kearney, husbands and founders of the sex-meets-street brand Nasty Pig.

For 30 years, Mr. Lauterstein and Mr. Kearney have reimagined what jockstraps, harnesses and other fetish-inspired apparel can be, and turned their company into a household name — if your house is a West Hollywood bungalow or Fire Island share.

This week, Mr. Lauterstein released “Sodomy Gods,” a memoir that traces in soul-baring and sexually frank detail his 31-year relationship with Mr. Kearney, and how they transformed Nasty Pig into one of the most recognizable gay clothing brands on the market, worn by celebrities such as Madonna and Frank Ocean.

During a recent interview at the company’s Manhattan design studio on West 28th Street — in what longtime customers would insist is Chelsea and deny is Hudson Yards — Mr. Lauterstein, 55, was in head-to-toe, darkroom-black Nasty Pig: T-shirt, shorts, garters, socks, boots.

Mr. Kearney, 63, had on a chest-hugging top in black and white with the logo in blood red.

Mr. Lauterstein is the chattier, less filtered of the two.

In his book, he writes candidly about his sex life and drug use.

He said he hoped his memoir would be an educational and entertaining time capsule about the brand but also about 1990s gay New York, with remembrances of the kind “our ancestors couldn’t pass down to us because we lost a lot of them” to AIDS.

Mr. Lauterstein and Mr. Kearney share a sex-positive sartorial vision for the brand, but divide daily responsibilities as chief executive and creative director, respectively.

(“I’m concept, he’s detail,” Mr. Lauterstein explained.)

The couple declined to discuss sales, though Mr. Lauterstein allowed that “Fred and I are terrible capitalists.”

Nasty Pig garments (above, on display in the company’s Manhattan design studio) help customers liven up the salad of life with a little raunch dressing.

Mr. Kearney said his inspirations include the gay artist Tom of Finland — whose vision of distended denim and straining tank tops refined an archetype of the hypermasculine clone — and the photographers Alvin Baltrop and Stanley Stellar, who captured New York’s gay pier scene of the 1970s and ’80s.

They said their biggest design influence was a friend:

Manfred Theirry Mugler, the maverick French fashion designer known for outré, BDSM-inspired creations who died in 2022.

“He taught us to stay out of the fashion industry because it will eat you alive,” Mr. Lauterstein said.

“Make clothing for your customers. The story is between you and them.”

‘It’s Like Lululemon’

Nasty Pig isn’t the first apparel brand to present an aspirational vision of what being gay can look like.

But it did refract that vision through the gay leather scene and men’s physique magazines of the 1950s, when a classic Bike brand jockstrap came in maybe one style.

They’re hardly alone in the gay apparel marketplace; Andrew Christian, one of the brand’s chief competitors, is a mainstay in gay shopping districts and well known to watchers of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Nasty Pig’s logo — an abstract snout, designed by the artist Ryan Duty, who died in 2020 — is one of the last purely queer identifiers.

“It’s like Lululemon,” said Tony Lance, 41, an arts consultant who lives in Manhattan, who was spotted with his Nasty Pig hat and tracksuit at an airport when an employee asked him if he had shopped the summer sale.

The designer John Bartlett said Nasty Pig has remained relevant by “staying true to the brand” in a notoriously inconstant industry.

“What Nasty Pig has done is take archetypal pieces of the gay subculture, what you used to have to get at the Leather Man on Christopher Street, and make them more commercial and accessible to a much larger audience,” said Mr. Bartlett, the New School’s director of fashion for executive and professional studies.

Critics say the brand reinforces a narrow understanding of sexy, excluding men who aren’t the type to frequent gyms or sweaty dance parties.

Ari Arya, 24, who is queer and nonbinary and recently graduated from the Parsons School of Design, said that the brand “belongs to a different generation,” and they and their friends most likely wouldn’t wear it.

Arya granted that its clothing could be “useful in an under-the-radar way” for queer people interested in signaling sexual daring and availability.

But for younger queers partial to blousy tops or boxy silhouettes, Nasty Pig doesn’t cut it.

“Wearing it would make me feel like a gay guy and I’m not,” they said. “I want to feel less like a gay guy.”

“Is our clothing identified as masculine? Sure,” Mr. Lauterstein said. “But it’s non-toxic. It’s celebratory.”

A Trusted Messenger

Mr. Lauterstein, who was raised on Staten Island by parents who were public-school teachers, studied poetry at SUNY Binghamton and took a job in music merchandising after graduating.

Mr. Kearney, who grew up in Kearny, N.J., graduated from Rutgers and worked as a professional patternmaker.

The two met on May 6, 1993, over $1 margaritas at the Break, a long-gone gay bar on Eighth Avenue.

“I was entranced,” Mr. Kearney said. “Engulfed.”

“He took my virginity,” Mr. Lauterstein replied, laughing.

After finding side-hustle success selling tricked-out goggles at Sound Factory and other nightclubs, the couple started designing and wearing their own apparel on nights out.

That eventually became the line they sold under the Nasty Pig brand — named for their Jack Russell terrier, Piggy — at their first store, which opened on Dec. 23, 1994, in a 64-square-foot Chelsea storefront.

At the time, fashion was confused about what gay men wanted to wear.

Other than Gianni Versace and a few others, designers weren’t making clothes that overtly sexualized the male body.

AIDS had entered its second decade, and as protease inhibitors made H.I.V. a bit less scary, many gay men got muscled, and men’s wear silhouettes tightened.

It was in this body-conscious environment that Nasty Pig first made a splash with clothes that belied the fear that coursed through many gay bodies.

In 2021, a year after its last retail location closed, the company opened its design studio, where a staff of 10 designs and markets the collections, manages the online shop and keeps the more than three dozen stores that carry the brand around the world well stocked.

In January, after Mr. Lauterstein and Mr. Kearney met with L.G.B.T.Q. public health officials at the White House, Nasty Pig hosted a “Pep Rally”: a booth at Mid Atlantic Leather, an annual fetish event in Washington, where the brand joined an effort by the city’s public health office to distribute doses of doxy-PEP, a kind of morning-after pill to prevent some S.T.I.s, in black, Nasty Pig-branded boxes.

Shaped by the AIDS crisis, the two founders consider gay sexual health, not just sex, to be part of their brand’s ethos.

“Sexual positivity wasn’t a thing then because sex was terrifying, especially for gay men and queer people,” Mr. Lauterstein said. “Nasty Pig opened to reclaim that identity and fight for it.”

[the-firebird69]

The rain is coming down and it's pretty heavy and people noted that there's two harbors that's where the two streams of rain are going and the cool air is attracting it and it's just gonna get cooler with the rain coming down the rivers and it is stirring up the manure but not enough to heat it up at this time later tonight or around 4:00 AM the Tide begins to come in a little the harbor kind of pressurizes and the water goes underneath and creates almost like a siphon below the other water that goes all the way out on the bottom and stays on the bottom because it's cool and it goes way out there underneath everything and that's creating a trough of cold air above it but that will start to speed up when the time begins to come in it's just a matter of physics because it has to seek the path of least resistance and it does we're expecting the dam which is about 120 foot long 4 feet deep and if you wide in some places it's 3 foot 6 inches we're expecting it to lose probably a foot coming up this morning it will be a hell of an experience it's gonna come flowing out of there if a foot bursts out the water will speed up and it will rip out down to three foot across the whole way and that will begin a process of ripping out more and more throughout the morning and at about 9:00 AM The water from up North will start to plow in in high volume it will begin to become a huge pain in the **** as a lot of you say and it will cause a lot of problems and one problem is it will start to erode away at the bridge supports that will of course cause turbulence but the silt and the muck that's right next to it will get ripped out in many cases all the way to the sand and will begin causing a lot of turbulence and the water will be discolored as it comes out and frothy and you'll see this froth that will go from the bridge all the way out to sea and it will be about 5 to 600 feet wide and a lot of it will be jammed up against the islands and fisherman's pier or village it'll be in the boating area I mean this froth is gonna be all over the place and it will only get worse and we believe it will start at 4:00 AM and it will have a crescendo around 10:00 AM it will be a massive amount of water and the reason is huge amounts of water coming from up north and and around the peers it softened because of capillary action the water goes alongside the concrete and seeps from the pier into the muck and it's been doing it for years but the flow speed has increased so much that tonight it's gonna rip out probably half of it around the peers at about 60 miles an hour down there then tomorrow morning will be about 50 to 55 miles an hour but a large volume of water and as it goes to the sides the water is pushed towards the middle because of the shape of the bottom it's like a bowl and it has like a meniscus but it's a convex not concave and it will push downwards and cause pressure and it will seep into the mock kind of quickly any other

[sanntosroberto]

Walking to Little Island at Pier 55 NYC Along The Hudson River, Artifici...

[docnad]

Little Island at Pier 55

Manhattan 2023:  The High Line https://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2023/06/manhattan-2023-high-line.html #NYC

[theworldiseek]

The Little Island at Pier 55 NYC

[luckyladyb1rd]

things i like:

little island at pier 55 in new york city, usa

(designed by heatherwick studios)

[architectureandfilmblog]

Little Island, Heatherwick Studios, proposed completion Spring 2021

LITTLE ISLAND ( PIER 55) NYC DRONE (2020)

A short video from The Dronalist, which combines a nice soundtrack with aerial footage showing the form and scale of this "floating’ park within its urban waterfront context, as construction progresses.

[mrsmoose54]

New York - Little Island @ Pier 55

New York – Little Island @ Pier 55

Visitors to New York now have a new attraction to visit on what will be an already packed itinerary. Constructed on the Hudson River, New York has unveiled it’s newest park. Little Island @ Pier 55 is a 2.4 acre playground with trails and an ampitheatre called the ‘The Amph’ that can seat 687 guests. Little Island boasts over 350 species of trees, shrubs and flowers along with a lawn area called…

[williswillkillus]

Photographs show Little Island, the park designed by Thomas Heatherwick on the Hudson River in New York, ahead of its official opening tomorrow.

Originally called Pier 55, Little Island is an elevated park built on top of 132 mushroom-shaped concrete columns in the river at 55 Hudson Greenway.

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/05/20/little-island-opening-thomas-heatherwick-new-york/

[picturethisphotographynyc]

June 2022 - Little Island, Big City

If you have your Picture This Photography NYC calendar this is your June 2022 image "Little Island, Big City"

Little Island is an extended park connected via walkways located at Pier 55 on The Hudson River at The West Side Highway between 13th & 14th Street. It is located between the remnants of Pier 54 and Pier 56 which were the first ports in New York City & was designed by architects Heatherwick Studios and was constructed as a repair for the piers that were badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy, it opened May 2021. 

Commercial cruises departed from Pier 54 & 56 In the early 1900's & were operated by the British Cunard-White Star line. There is a steel archway at Little Island’s South Bridge entrance remaining from the Cunard-White Star building.

Little Island is funded by the Diller-Von Furstenberg Family Foundation in Hudson River Park and is a public park built by New Yorkers for New Yorkers. Highlights of the park include breath-taking views from rolling hills with walking paths, plenty of open lawns with amazing views of New York City.

Little Island features an amphitheater "The Amph" for regular open air performances behind the hills right on the river. There is an intimate stage for up 200 visitors called The Glade tucked away and an open plaza & gathering space known as The Play Ground. The aim of the different spaces is to host a range of programs for all people including theater, dance, music, educational programs and community events.

"Little Island provides New Yorkers and visitors with a unique urban oasis—a place for experiences that ignite imagination, foster spontaneity and play, and supports camaraderie and connection." from Little Island official website

I remember seeing the plans all over social media during the proposal stage and never imagined it would be built as it was so futuristic in appearance however as time went on the whole skyline has changed so much it both blends in & stands out at the same time.

This photograph was taken not long after it opened one Sunday afternoon and tickets were a hot commodity and had to be booked in advance, now it is much more accessible and attracts locals & tourists alike.

📷 Photographing in bright sun/daylight required a balancing of light to capture detail without over/under exposing colour, add to the mix the many layers contained within the foreground and background means also choosing correct depth of field and a suitable focal point. I like the challenge of capture colour, shape & detail against a bright sky when shooting in daylight although it is not my favourite time of day to shoot.

I prefer minimal adjustments & choose to work with what is captured as opposed to photo editing so stick to minimal manipulation such as straightening, slight cropping, basic adjustments and do not use photoshop or lightroom to maintain authenticity. 

Little Island is well worth a visit and has a something for everyone. My favourite inclusions are the hypnotic spinning spiral and interactive percussion instruments dotted around the park surprising people and bringing great joy by stepping on the musical metal plates or playing the upright xylophone.

All of this gives a feeling of temporarily being on a Little Island while connected to a Big City.

[xanderwithanx]

Little Island on Pier 55 in NYC. This was so cool!

[sanntosroberto]

Little Island at Pier 55 NYC Along The Hudson River, Artificial Island ...