Beach Day, in Manhattan?

Last October, I ended up in NYC on one of the final, spectacularly glorious fall days of the season. The sun was strong and warm and transformed the trees’ turning leaves into brilliant pops of color.

I remembered hearing something about a new “beach” in the city, and a quick Google search found it had opened the week before and was not far away. I headed to the Gansevoort Peninsula with my powerwalking best and arrived on an incongruous scene.

 Lounge chairs, picnic tables, pristine sand and waves gently lapping at a rocky shoreline created an inviting respite, Manhattan’s first public beachfront. As my feet sank into the fresh sand, it was hard to believe I was only a few minutes’ walk from the Whitney Museum of American Art in the Meatpacking District.

The Hudson’s riverfront had been transformed entirely, the working waterway and busy cityscape fading into the background in the midst of this tiny oasis of peace and leisure. And on this unseasonably warm October day, it was a sensory surprise and delight.

Also intriguing was the large-scale sculpture at the water’s edge, Day’s End by David Hammons, donated by the Whitney Museum. The site-specific stainless steel and precast concrete structure alludes to the waterfront’s history. According to the accompanying description, Hammons drew inspiration from an earlier work at the same location involving a former warehouse on Pier 52, and the new steel structure precisely follows the outline and location of that former shed.

Seeing the dramatic lower Manhattan cityscape framed by the boxy shape of a warehouse, a reminder of a past iteration of this site, underscored for me how cities are constantly reinventing themselves. The beach I strolled across was a tangible example of that.

My takeaway? Surprise and delight can be hard to find when we are bombarded with images from around the world, making things seldom seem original or new. Happening upon a playful use of existing space on a warm fall day put a smile on my face, and for that, I was grateful.

Thanks to Gansevoort Peninsula in Manhattan for this dose of inspiration.