Teardrop Park Debuts

Ten water spouts in the crevices of the 27-foot high by 168-foot long Hamilton bluestone allow water to wet the rock surface. In winter, the rock wall will become ice encrusted.

Battery Park City, a neighborhood of 9,000 people on the west side of Lower Manhattan, has a new two-acre children's park built on landfill and bordered by tall apartment towers that makes dramatic use of bluestone granite. The name ?EUR??,,????'??Teardrop?EUR??,,????'?? is descriptive of the park's shape.

The design work was a collaboration between the landscape architectural firm, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates of New York City, artists Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil, with engineering by Mueser Rutledge and Arup, and consulting work by Robin Moore, a professor of landscape architecture at North Carolina State University, and his colleague, Nilda Cosco.

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates describes the park design on its website as evocative of the ?EUR??,,????'??tectonic geology of the Hudson River Valley landscape, introducing massive bluestone elements and a delicate woodland ecology.?EUR??,,????'?? The rock formations ?EUR??,,????'??rely on the natural unfinished qualities of the stone for effect.?EUR??,,????'??

The small park, built for $17 million, packs in almost 66,000 plants, including flowering helleborus and halesia trees.