Where longshoremen once unloaded goods from cargo ships, people now relax along the waterfront in Long Island City's Gantry Plaza State Park. The New York Times featured the SWA/Balsley project in a round-up of transformed piers across the five boroughs. Over 300 piers served the city's manufacturing industry, but as production declined and the piers went unused, New York looked to increase access to the waterfront by adapting many of these platforms into parks. SWA/Balsley, together with Weintraub di Domenico, envisioned Gantry Plaza State Park as a place that celebrates its past and future, electing to keep the gantries that once unloaded cargo ships at the piers. Completed nearly 25 years ago, the design sought to heal a once-divided community and instill a strong sense of neighborhood spirit and pride. The Friends of Gantry Plaza State Park alliance, formed to protect the park, testifies to the power of this place.
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