Comment on Futuristic NY pier project pits billionaire vs billionaire

Proponents and opponents of the $250 million project plan to meet Monday to try and reach a settlement that would avoid more legal action in a conflict that has pitted media mogul Barry Diller and his wife, fashion maven Diane von Furstenberg, against Douglas Durst, the real estate developer and skyscraper baron. The plan to tear down the old, deteriorating Pier 54 on the Manhattan waterfront and replace it with a new structure, Pier 55, seemed like a fait accompli when it was first announced in 2014. Opposition emerged, though, partly based on environmental concerns about the pier's impact on aquatic life, and partly rooted in complaints from some over the way in which the project had been planned without broader public input. "The way they've operated is like moving plants around their personal backyard," said Emery, a civil rights attorney representing the nonprofit City Club of New York, a civic group fueling the contrarian position. Durst recently acknowledged that he had quietly funded the lawsuits — two unsuccessful ones in state courts, and a third that resulted in a federal court revoking the project's permit this past March. Durst's estranged brother, Robert Durst, was acquitted in the death of an acquaintance in Texas and is now facing charges in Los Angeles that he killed a longtime friend because he feared she might divulge incriminating information regarding the 1982 disappearance of his first wife.