Something Fishy Going On Here

Hudson River Park Debuts New Science Playground in Tribeca

Third graders from St. Luke’s School charge into the newly opened Science Playground at Pier 26 on Tuesday. Photograph by Matthew Fenton.

The eagerly anticipated Science Playground at Pier 26 in Hudson River Park (near North Moore Street) opened on Tuesday afternoon, as dozens of third-grade students from St. Luke’s School stampeded through the front gate and swarmed a pair of custom-fabricated giant structures in the shapes of endangered species native to the Hudson River—the Atlantic sturgeon and shortnose sturgeon.

The 4,000-square-foot recreational space is meant to blend fun with education, encouraging kids to climb over and inside the much-larger-than-life shapes while exploring fish anatomy, and interacting with marine-oriented features to learn about local wildlife native to the park’s 400-acre estuarine sanctuary.

Children are encouraged to clamber over and climb inside two giant sturgeon replicas at the new Science Playground. Photograph: Hudson River Park.

“The new Science Playground is a place for children and their imaginations and adventures, but it’s also a place for learning about our local habitat,” said Noreen Doyle, president of the Hudson River Park Trust.

The Science Playground broke ground in December 2022 and cost approximately $4 million. This pricetag was covered by a combination of private and public sources. Philanthropist Mike Novogratz donated a $1.3-million match for private donations, while the New York City Council provided $1 million. City Council Member Chris Marte and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine each allocated discretionary funds for the project.

The pair of sturgeons was conceived by OLIN, whose design for the playground (the fifth within Hudson River Park) also includes a perimeter seat wall, safety surfacing, climbing nets, and a water-misting feature. The space is surrounded by native plants and trees, connecting it to the overall Hudson River Park landscape. 

OLIN also designed the adjacent Pier 26, which opened in 2020 and the following year won the Municipal Art Society’s Best Urban Landscape award for incorporating five ecological zones: woodland forest, coastal grassland, maritime scrub, rocky tidal zone, and the Hudson River (which is viewed from a tide deck).

In related news, the Hudson River Park Trust is in the design phase for its long-planned Estuarium, a 10,000-square-foot facility that will function as a combination of laboratory, public exhibit, and learning space designed to offer hands-on programs in the urban ecology of New York Harbor and the larger Hudson River ecosystem. The Estuarium will be located next to the Science Playground. In September 2022, HRPT awarded a $3.4-million contract to the Tribeca-based architectural firm of Sage and Coombe to develop preliminary designs. This is anticipated to be one of the final elements that will complete the original vision of Hudson River Park. The Estuarium was created by marine biologist and Tribeca resident Cathy Drew in the 1980s as a marine science field station. For years, the River Project was housed on Pier 26, but the organization relocated to temporary quarters at Pier 40 when the HRPT began to redevelop the structure in 2008.

Matthew Fenton

LETTER

To the editor,

[Re: Patriot Games, January 23, 2024]

Please refrain from referring to those mindless vessels of hate as “patriots.” There is nothing patriotic, nothing American, about hate, threats of violence, “othering” and bigotry. 

And let’s be honest: they cover their faces not because “anonymity is an American right.” They cover their faces because they are cowards without the integrity and intestinal fortitude to have their families, friends, neighbors and employers know who and what they truly are. They march around like the gutless fools they are; hiding behind masks, spouting rhetoric and philosophy that have lost every battle in which they have ever been tested. You have to give them that much, after all: they are consistently unsuccessful in every instance. Just ask the original Nazis, the Confederates, and the axis of WWII. 

They are not “patriots” and will never belong in Lower Manhattan, where true patriots walked.

Denise A. Rubin

Growing Up Under a Cloud

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DOWNTOWN CALENDAR

Wednesday, January 24

9:30am

Kindie Rock

6 River Terrace

Performers lead families with little ones in sing-a-longs. Two sessions; second session starts at 10:30am. Space is limited. Free.

1pm

Adult Chorus

200 Rector Place

Directed by Church Street School of Music, the chorus is open to all who love to sing. Learn contemporary and classic songs and perform at community events throughout the year. Free.

Thursday, January 25

5:30pm

Monolithic

Perelman Performing Arts Center lobby

Monolithic is the pseudonym of Jun Torii, a Brooklyn-based music producer and DJ originally from Japan. Free.

6pm 

First Precinct Community Council

First Precinct, 16 Ericsson Place

Discuss policing and safety in the First Precinct. Open to all.

7pm-10pm

Beatles Open Mic Night

Church Street School, 41 White Street

Interested in performing? You must RSVP and reserve your song selection to avoid duplicates. Performances are backed by Church Street School's House Band. $20.

7pm-9pm

Live From the Poster Museum

Philip Williams Posters, 52 Warren Street

Drummer Robby Ameen performs with his jazz band. $20/$10 students. RSVP at 212-513-0313.

7pm

Eva’s Promise

Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place

Film screening. Eva’s Promise tells the story of Eva, who promised her brother, Heinz Geiringer, that she would retrieve his paintings and poetry, hidden under the floorboards of their family’s attic, if he should die in the concentration camps.  Followed by a talkback with Steve McCarthy; Eva’s grandson, Eric Schloss; and the film’s producer, Susan Kerner. $10 donation.

2018 photograph © Robert Simko

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