Whimsical new NYC waterfront park floats over Hudson River

NEW YORK — A whimsical new park that appears to float on pilings above the Hudson River opened to the public just off the Manhattan shoreline Friday, four years after a fight between media mogul Barry Diller and a billionaire real estate developer threatened to derail it. Real estate developer Douglas Durst, who had been pushed out of his position as chair of the fundraising group Friends of Hudson River Park a few years before, was revealed to have bankrolled the lawsuits filed by the nonprofit City Club of New York. “We are pleased the project helped get Hudson River Park finished,” Durst, the one-time lawsuit bankroller, said through a spokesperson Wednesday. Little Island’s human-made hills provide views of the Hudson on one side and city on the other, but the park’s carefully constructed topography makes it feel like its own little world.