UPDATED, July 19, 2:25 p.m.: A New York appeals court modified a temporary order Monday to stop work at Barry Diller’s Pier 55, allowing construction of the floating park to proceed for now.
The City Club of New York sued to block the project last year. A state judge dismissed the suit in April, but the civic organization appealed and on June 30 won a preliminary injunction halting construction work. The latest court order allows some construction work to proceed until a hearing in the case, which is scheduled for September.
Barry Diller and his wife Diane von Furstenberg jointly donated $113 million to the project, a 2.3-acre public park on a platform over the Hudson River. The Hudson River Park Trust is overseeing construction, and also contributed $39.5 million.
The City Club of New York opposes the project in its current form, arguing it should first undergo an environmental review.
“Now that both state and federal courts have denied its demand for an injunction, the City Club should take this cue to finally end its absurd crusade against the wishes of the community,” a spokesperson for the project said in a statement.
“The injunction remains in place and is only amended to allow 9 piles to be placed,” the City Club’s lawyer Richard Emery said in a statement. “Diller does that at his peril, in that they will have to be removed if we win.”