The design of South Cove continues the themes established in the Battery Park City Esplanade. At the same time, it introduces a new sensibility, materials, furnishings, and plant material to create a very different waterfront experience. South Cove juxtaposes the built and the natural, the land and the water. It is a public place which allows space for reflection and private experience and offers multiple choices as the visitor moves through the site. The intention is to overlay these diverse experiences in a park that brings the visitor into direct contact with the waters of the Hudson River.
Elements of the Battery Park City Esplanade are woven into a densely planted grove and a land water contour which actively engages the Cove?s edges. But the design here evokes an earlier, more natural condition of coastal vegetation and waterfront structures, with rock outcroppings and architectural details of wood. The organic form is purposefully contrasted against the built environment.
A cast iron lookout echoing the Statue of Liberty?s crown rules the site. The lookout allows the visitor to see that the platform, which makes up the coves edge, has been cut away to expose its understructure and the water beneath it. At night the edge of the whole cove is marked by intense blue lights reflecting in the water. South Cove was created through a collaborative creation between Stanton Eckstut, artist Mary Miss and landscape architect Susan Child.
