New York City’s newest public park is a nominee for Untapped New York’s Best of New York Awards. Waterline Square Park, which opened over the summer of 2020, was chosen along with other New York City parks that opened this year by our panel of urban experts in the category of Best New Park. You can see all of the nominees and vote for your favorites here! Located between Manhattan’s Midtown and Upper West Side, this riverfront park features a huge children’s playground, lush greenery and unique water features.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella
Waterline Square Park is bounded by 12th Avenue to the west and Freedom Place South to the east, West 59th Street to the south, and West 61st Street to the north. The wide park is framed by three residential buildings that make up the Waterline Square development. This green space serves as both a backyard for residents and a public park for the surrounding community.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella
Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects designed the park which stretches out over nearly three acres. You can see MNLA’s work around New York City in places like Governor’s Island and Little Island at Pier 55. In designing the park, the firm created large open spaces while highlighting view corridors and enhancing public accessibility. Entering the park from 60th Street, visitors are greeted by park features for active recreation. At the front of the park, you will find seating and tables along with a massive playground, an interactive water fountain and pedestrian walkways. As you get closer to the west end of the park, the spaces become more reflective and offer serene natural settings for rest.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella
One of the most unique parts of Waterline Square Park is the cascading water feature that meanders beneath the pedestrian paths and through the park’s verdant foliage. The stream-like feature flows from the park’s interactive fountain to the western edge, where visitors can walk through trees and plants on pedestrian bridges and pathways. The park features 200 different types of trees spanning twenty different species, many of which are native to New York.
Photograph by Elizabeth Felicella
Waterline Square Park was nominated by a panel of urban experts for our Best of New York Awards in the category of Best New Park! Other parks nominated include Hudson River Park’s Pier 26, the Brooklyn Greenway Extension, Evelina Antonetty Playground, and Lincoln Terrace Playground. You can see all of the categories and nominees and cast your vote here! Five randomly selected voters will win a free autographed copy of Secret Brooklyn! Voting is open through December 31st at 11:59 PM. Winners will be announced on January 4th and Secret Brooklyn winners will be notified via email.
Nicole Saraniero is the Insider-in-Chief at Untapped New York, leading our Untapped New York Insiders membership program. Nicole graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor of Science in Televis
