Elevated Acre

A garden oasis in the sky in Lower Manhattan's financial district? Just so.

You get to the Elevated Acre at 55 Water St. by a mysterious-looking stairway or escalator you'd never guess leads to a pastoral platform amid the towers of high finance.

In the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, over the winter when nothing much was blooming and almost no one was working downtown, a few folks still elevated themselves here for a break or a think or a stroll.

While the big field of turf lacks charisma...

...the paths and benches offer nice spots to either squirrel yourself away...

...or take in the river view.

We owe the existence of the Elevated Acre to zoning regulations that allowed developers to build higher in return for including a public plaza on the property. The platform was completed in the early 1970s, the present design in 2005. Untapped Cities reports that in "normal" times there's a restaurant and a summer beer garden, along with scheduled events.

As the website of co-designer Marvel Designs has it, the platform offers "panoramic views of the Brooklyn Bridge and New York Harbor amidst lush seasonal flora and under the plaza’s beacon tower" and is "designed to host a wide range of year-round programs from an ice-rink to outdoor amphitheater and wedding receptions."

The beacon tower doesn't look like much by day, but at night it lights up, announcing the Elevated Acre to passing barges and ferries. (The glass company that outfitted the tower has some nice photos of the tower illuminated.)

All photos © Critical Lens Media