Pier 57 is a pier and building on the east bank of the Hudson River, along the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Opened in 1954, it sits at the end of 15th Street on Eleventh Avenue (West Side Highway). Pier 57 was designed by Emil H. Praeger and constructed by engineering firm Madigan-Hyland. It includes a headhouse facing the street and a pier shed facing the river, which are arranged to form a two-story, T-shaped building. The pier is underpinned by three submerged, buoyant concrete caissons, which contain the building's basement. The first and second stories contain office space and a food court, and there is a roof garden above. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The original Pier 57, built in 1907, was leased to the Grace Line before it burned down in 1947. Madigan-Hyland, which conducted engineering studies for a replacement pier, found that it was infeasible to reuse the original pier's pilings, so Praeger drew up plans for a floating pier. Construction on the replacement pier began on August 30, 1950, and the caissons were installed in 1952; the new pier was dedicated on March 5, 1954. Though the terminal formally opened in December 1954, it was not used by ships until early 1955. It was originally used by the Grace Line, which vacated the building and pier in 1967, after which the pier remained idle for several years.
From 1972 to 2003, Pier 57 housed the Hudson Pier Bus Depot for the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA). It was then briefly used as a detention facility during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Cipriani S.A. and Steven C. Witkoff were selected to redevelop the pier as part of Hudson River Park in 2005, but their bid failed. Another developer, Young Woo & Associates (YWA), was selected in 2009 and initially proposed redeveloping the pier as a business incubator and retail space. YWA and RXR Realty began renovating the building with office space for Google, a food hall, a rooftop park, and entertainment venues. The pier reopened in stages between 2020 and 2023.
Site Pier 57 is located on the east bank of the Hudson River, on 11th Avenue at 15th Street, along the West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Adjacent to it are Little Island at Pier 55 to the south and Chelsea Piers to the north. The Merchants Refrigerating Company Warehouse, an 11-story warehouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is immediately across 11th Avenue. Also nearby to the east and southeast are the High Line and Gansevoort Market. The pier, part of a series of sequentially-numbered Hudson River piers, was originally adjoined by Pier 56 to the south and Pier 58 to the north.
The pier is surrounded by a walkway on all sides, except for the north and south elevations of the headhouse at the pier's east end. The walkway on the east side of the building is part of Hudson River Park. This walkway, measuring wide, was originally a truck-loading apron. Wooden pilings surround the pier, functioning as fenders, and rubber buffers are also installed. The pier is flanked by the Hudson River bulkhead wall, a granite-and-concrete structure extending north to 59th Street and south to Battery Park.
Architecture Pier 57 is the second pier of that name on the site, replacing a structure destroyed in 1947. It was designed by Emil H. Praeger of the engineering firm Madigan-Hyland and was constructed by Madigan-Hyland. It extends westward into the river. The superstructure of Pier 57 consists of a T-shaped building with two sections: the pier shed facing the water to the west, and the bulkhead shed (or headhouse) facing the street to the east. The pier shed is across and runs east–west, and the headhouse is across and runs north–south. Both sections have a concrete basement resting on the riverbed, along with two above-water levels.
Exterior Facade The headhouse has a steel frame and a brick exterior. The eastern elevation faces 11th Avenue and is divided into three vertical sections, all with door openings at the ground floor. At the central section are tall window openings, along with stainless-steel signage reading "MARINE & AVIATION" and "PIER 57". The outer sections of the eastern elevation have horizontal ribbons of windows. The northern and southern elevations of the headhouse are blank and are clad with stucco or cement plaster; at the time of construction, they adjoined directly onto other buildings on the Hudson River.The pier shed is a two-story structure with a basement. Its longer north and south elevations are divided vertically into 32 bays. Within these bays were originally 126 vertical-lift truck doors on the first and second stories, along with steel sash windows. The doors were each divided into four sections and operated manually by chains, and had a total surface area of . Following a 2020s renovation, the bays were infilled with of steel-and-glass facade panels, which slant inward at the top. The bays are each topped with a line of continuous "burton" cargo-handling frames, which allowed freight to be easily transferred to and from ships docked at the pier.
The pier shed's western elevation has a curved, Art Deco-style metal facade with similar stainless-steel signage to the headhouse. The western elevation also had colored lights and a balcony where people could see departing passengers off.
Roof The roof was originally used as a heliport, parking lot, and cargo-transfer area, which was used by vehicles and cargo awaiting shipment. At the time of completion in 1954, the pier was the only one in New York City with a parking lot on the roof, although the roof lot was not open for public use. In 2022, a public roof garden opened atop Pier 57,; accessible via stairs and elevators from the food hall inside. The roof garden contains lawns and bleacher seats. In addition to serving as a park, the rooftop space collects rainwater and reduces the urban heat island effect caused by nearby buildings. The roof also has a performance venue for screenings of the Tribeca Festival.
Interior The entire interior is made of steel and concrete and, from the outset, had a sprinkler system to limit fire damage. Pier 57 is variously cited as having , , or of space in total. Each story has a ceiling. The interior reopened in stages between 2020 and 2023, with a food hall, office space, entertainment venues, and educational facilities.
Original configuration Originally, the headhouse's first floor had offices to the east, facing the street, in addition to 14 loading docks for trucks. A stair ascended to the second floor, where there were offices and a hallway. Another passenger-vehicle ramp led between the first and second floors, for people wishing to bid farewell to passengers, avoiding the potential for congestion caused by idling cars. A driveway allowed taxi drivers to drop off and pick up passengers in the headhouse's basement. There were also a baggage conveyor and escalator leading between the basement and first floor.
The pier shed's interior was an open space with steel columns and concrete floors. It also had offices, truck ramps, and freight elevators; the truck ramps were the first to be installed at a pier in the Port of New York. Large trucks were required to use the headhouse's loading docks, while smaller trucks could use the elevators and truck ramps inside. Midway along the pier shed's length, two elevators connected each level. On the second story was a passenger waiting room for the original tenant, Grace Line. The pier shed also had a cafeteria for Grace Line employees, along with a large bathroom for dockworkers. As designed, the basement contained storage warehouses, along with utilities, a garage, pumps, and heating system. Elevators throughout the building served the basement.
Post-redevelopment
Following the 2020s redevelopment, the building has contained a food hall, which was built with 15; or 17 stalls. The food hall, spanning , includes a culinary education and demonstration venue called Platform; both spaces are operated by James Beard Foundation.; At the west end of the pier shed is a black box theater known as Horizon Hall. A second theater is located in the former passenger waiting room on the pier shed's second floor. There is a restaurant and performance space for City Winery, which contains beams salvaged from the venue's previous location. Next to the food hall is a "living room" facing the southern elevation. Also within Pier 57 is a double-height atrium called the Visitor Landing, with 54 skylights, along with a series of interactive activities known as Discovery Tank.;
Google also occupies about of office space, which includes lounges, a dining terrace, meeting spaces, and workspaces across three floors. Google operates three environmental technology classrooms, which are leased out to nonprofit and neighborhood groups. One of the former vehicular ramps is used as a incline elevator; this makes Pier 57 one of two locations in New York City with incline elevators, along with the New York City Subway's 34th Street–Hudson Yards station.
Caissons The original pier had been supported by 3,000 pilings made of timber. The pilings had not descended to bedrock and could not support the weight of the replacement pier. They could also not be removed because the resulting holes would have destabilized the silt in the riverbed. The underlying bedrock is between below the riverbed, so it was also infeasible to drill a conventional pile down to bedrock. The current pier is instead supported by three submerged buoyant concrete caissons (also referred to as pontoons or concrete boxes). Before the caissons were built, the old pilings were severed above the level of the riverbed, approximately beneath mean low water. The tips of the pilings were covered with a layer of gravel. The only pilings used in the current pier are the fenders around the caissons.
The caissons are laid out in a T-shape, with the two caissons of equal dimensions laid out from west to east, and the third from north to south. The two largest concrete caissons by volume are long, wide, and high and sit under the pier shed. The third, underneath the headhouse, is long, wide, and high. Inside each caisson are interior girders measuring up to thick. The two larger caissons also have steel meshes embedded into their concrete foundations. Each caisson's roof has massive girders measuring across, spaced every , which support the first-floor deck above. The caisson walls measure thick and are attached to the riverbed using steel dowels that are spaced every . Each dowel measures across and is driven into the riverbed. The caissons' interiors accommodate all of the pier's subaquatic spaces, including storage areas, ramps, elevators, and driveways.
The design principle is based on similar structures created as part of the American military effort in World War II, including temporary breakwaters that were used during the D-Day invasion in Normandy. The caissons weigh up to , but they float because they weigh less than the of water that they displace. They are capable of supporting weights of about . Their buoyancy supports 90% of the pier's weight, while the riverbed supports the rest.
History The first Pier 57, built in 1907 for $1.2 million, was made of wood and measured long. It had what the Scientific American described as a "fireproof" metal shed, which measured across. The original pier was part of the Chelsea Piers complex between piers 54 and 62, served by ocean liners. Pier 57 was occupied by the French Line before being leased to the Grace Line in 1936.;
Development 1947 fire