Four rolling hills make up the park’s new topography, each one with distinctive qualities. Grassy Hill has a 25-foot-high slope that looks out over the Manhattan skyline, while the 40-feet-high Slide Hill has 4 slides, one of which will be the longest in NYC. The 60-foot-high Discovery Hill is slated to host various art exhibitions and installations along its pathways, and the highest hill at 80-feet high, Outlook Hill, will provide stunning views of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor.
“We wanted people to experience the views of the harbor, the sea and the sky,” says Leslie Koch, the longtime, and now outgoing, president of The Trust for Governors Island, in the video. “And it’s really that sense of openness which the park and The Hills capture and is also embodied in really the spirit of how people use Governors Island.”
Designed by landscape architecture firm West 8, the Hills are at the heart of the $220 million plan to overhaul the previously closed-to-public Governors Island. Along with exploring the four hills, visitors will be able to enjoy a 14-acre play lawn, a 10-acre Hammock Grove, a redesigned Liggett Terrace, a new Soissons Landing ferry dock, and an upgraded 12-acre Parade Ground.
+ Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects
Via DNAinfo