New Wave Pier

The New Wave Pier is a colorful, retro-styled waterfront space along the East River Esplanade, stretching between East 38th and East 41st Streets. Before its recent transformation, this site was a grey, underutilized concrete walkway that served as a quiet stretch of industrial-era infrastructure. In 2021, city designers reimagined the pier by applying a vibrant, technicolor paint treatment inspired by the bold aesthetics of the nineteen-eighties. The redesign draws stylistic cues from iconic cultural touchstones of that decade, including the art of Keith Haring and popular television programs of the era.