Four new hills built on New York City’s Governors Island offer sweeping views of the Statute of Liberty and lower Manhattan, unique places to hike and climb, and massive slides that dwarf those found on any playground.
Set to open Tuesday, the 10-acre park called The Hills at Governors Island is the newest piece of the redevelopment of the once off-limits former Army and Coast Guard base in the heart of New York Harbor.
The four hills, built in part with fill and debris from demolition of the island’s old barracks, range from 26 feet to 70 feet high, and have been lushly planted with trees, shrubs and grasses by New York-based Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects. One, aptly named Slide Hill, has four stainless-steel chutes that run as long as 57 feet.
“One of the signatures of Governors Island is this idea that play is for everyone,” Leslie Koch, president of the trust created by the city to oversee redevelopment of 150 acres of the island. “There’s no age limit. Adults are invited to play, not just children.”
Koch described how the hills were designed to take advantage of the island’s 360-degree vantage point, offering views not only of New York’s skyscrapers and Lady Liberty, but of burgeoning Jersey City, N.J., and the Brooklyn and Verrazano bridges.