Teardrop Park at Battery Park City
Teardrop Park, just opened to the public at Battery Park City
is the culmination of five years of work and collaboration between
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, artists Ann Hamilton and Michael
Mercil, and the Battery Park City Authority.
Teardrop Park draws both inspiration and material from the dramatic
tectonic geology of the Hudson River Valley landscape—over
3,000 tons of bluestone were hauled into the two-acre park and
serve as the backdrop for a delicate, yet complex planting plan
inspired by upstate New York’s woodland ecology.
The park is bound by four high rise apartment buildings that all
exceed 200 feet. To counteract the shady, courtyard-like nature
of the site, the stone elements are exaggerated in scale and dip
and rise to form intimate low pockets and high prospects for 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 water features, and a slide, all integrated into the park's
rock formations and connected by a network of winding paths. The
open invitation for children to explore and play on designated
natural surfaces, including a miniature marsh, seeks to animate
the site with the presence of children – the play surfaces
have proved successful because they are intense, yet fun; urban,
yet reminiscent of the side-roads of New England.
At the heart of the park is massive layered stone “ice wall”
with dripping wet surfaces in the summer that transform into a
rugged wall of shimmering ice in the winter. The ice wall embodies
the underlying design approach to the park – the choreography
of unfinished natural materials that thoughtfully and assertively
represent, rather than merely attempt to simulate nature in an
urban setting.
Images by Paul Warchol