A new beach will open in Manhattan this summer

Coney Island will soon have a new competitor in the West Village.

This summer, from the same company that brought New Yorkers to the High Line, a brand new riverside retreat will open on the shores of Manhattan, becoming the borough’s first and only public beach.

“People want a place to lay down and take their shirts off, and that’s what they’re going to get here,” Noreen Doyle, CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust, told The Daily Beast about the new peninsula of Gansevoort. The tanning spot was first announced in 2019 and was originally scheduled to open in 2022. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the sandy getaway will now be open to the public this summer – something to look forward to these days in the dead of winter .

The Gansevoort peninsula promises to provide visitors with a salt marsh, a public art installation called “Day’s End”, a sports field, a boat launch for kayaks and small boats, a tree-lined boardwalk and waterfront access – but no swimming.

“The Hudson River has made huge health gains since the Clean Water Act was passed in the 1970s, but it’s not designed as a swimming beach,” Doyle told the publication, noting that the lack of bathing was “clear from the start”.

Those eager to immerse their mortal bodies in the murky waters surrounding America’s most manic metropolis will be reassured, however, that another new beach in the works will allow them to wade – but no more than that.

Across the water in Williamsburg, a second beach is slated to open in 2028 and will allow visitors to enjoy the river between Brooklyn and Manhattan.

“The goal is to draw people to the water’s edge, to let them interact with the East River like never before,” said Dave Lombino, chief executive of development company Two Trees. , to NY1 about Williamsburg Beach. “A few days ago, dolphins were swimming behind me in the East River. The trajectory of water quality over time is very much improving.