A pier like you’ve never seen before

Photo: Heatherwick Studios

Imagine taking on a landscaping project where you may have to carry site materials by boat.

Enter Pier 55.

Barry Diller, credited for creating the Fox and USA television channels, is making an island oasis in New York City, according to Business Insider. This billionaire is dropping a whopping $113 million to the project, relieving a majority of the financial responsibility for the city and state of New York.

The project costs $130 million and will be a floating park and performance space 186 feet off the Hudson River. The park will have 300 mushroom shaped columns and a 700-seat amphitheater. Plans are already underway for low-cost or free events.

Heatherwick Studios, from the United Kingdom, designed the park and will work with local landscape architect Signe Nielsen. Heatherwick was responsible for the 2012 design of London’s Olympic cauldron. Diller and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, also created a foundation to help with project maintenance costs.

Pier 54, famous for being RMS Lusitania’s departure point and the arrival site of the ill-fated Titanic, will be demolished. Construction starts 2016 and should be open by late 2019.