These tide flowers remind us that nature does not stop in the city. The Hudson River, which brushes against urban concrete and glass, rises and lowers four feet twice a day with the eternal clock of the tides. This tidal activity connects city-dwellers to the ocean, to the moon, and to a daily schedule that is nature’s own.

The changing tide on the Hudson River is made visible with bright, buoyant, vinyl flower petals that are hinged to the pier’s piling. The petals are engineered to rise and fall with the tide. They spread out on the water surface at high tide and hang flat against the piling when the water level drops at low tide, like a flower that opens up during the day and closes its petals when the sun starts to set. The difficult to observe tide patterns are made apparent by the opening and closing of the tide flowers.