Manhattan to open first public beach in summer of 2023 

New York City will open a beach in Manhattan’s West Village this summer, becoming the borough's first public beach. 

The new beach, Gansevoort Peninsula, was first announced in 2019. Although originally intended to open in 2022, it will now open to the public this summer. 

“People want a place to lay down and to take their shirt off, and that’s what they’re gonna have here,” James Corner Field Operations architectural designer, Cricket Day, the designer for the beach. 

The 5-and-a-half acre Gansevoort Peninsula includes a salt marsh, an athletic field, a launch for kayaks and other small boats, a public art installation called “Days End,” and a tree-lined promenade. In the south area of the park, there will be a sandy area lined with umbrellas and lounge chairs. 

work is set to begin on 'gansevoort peninsula', a park that will include manhattan's first beach https://t.co/lNLFXjMbFO pic.twitter.com/txnnDPpnol

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However, there will be no swimming on Manhattan’s first beach. 

“The Hudson River has made a huge amount of progress in terms of its health since the Clean Water Act was passed in the 1970s, but this is not designed as a swimming beach,” Noreen Doyle, CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust, told the publication, noting that the lack of swimming has been “clear from the get-go.”  

A second beach is scheduled to open in 2028 across the river in Williamsburg. The beach plans to allow visitors to enjoy bathing in the river that divides Brooklyn and Manhattan. 

“The goal is to attract folks to the water’s edge, to let them interact with the East River in a way that they never have,” said Dave Lombino, management director of development company Two Trees. “A couple of days ago, there were dolphins swimming behind me in the East River. The trajectory of water quality over time is a very sharp improvement.”