Parks & Public Space
Little Island — Built from the Waterline Up
From a startup office in Chelsea to opening-day infrastructure for 1.7 million visitors
How It Started
A modest engagement at the edge of Manhattan
Little Island was one of New York's most anticipated civic projects — a $260M+ gift from Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg to the city, constructed on 132 concrete tulip-shaped piers off the Hudson shore in Chelsea. When the organization behind the park needed basic office support — subscription cleanup, workstation recommendations, occasional help desk — RSystems showed up. What followed was two years of deep technical involvement in one of the most complex ground-up IT builds in the city.
RSystems was engaged to set up a small office for the park's startup team near the construction site. A few questions about connecting that office across West Side Highway to the park led to a request to review the WiFi specification the general contractor had provided. That review surfaced something significant: the underlying network had not been designed.
The Advisory Role
Working inside a $260M design/build
By 2019, RSystems was embedded as the technical advisor to the full project team — working alongside general contractor Hunter Roberts, Standard Architects, and IAC executive Jason Stewart, who served as Barry Diller's personal representative and project executive throughout the build.
Arup, the engineering firm that had developed the initial IT plans, had since departed the project. Their work included solid WiFi coverage planning but left critical gaps: no network topology, no specified switching equipment, no environmental hardening for an outdoor marine installation, and — critically — no power redundancy. For a public space of this profile, that last omission wasn't a design preference. It was a public safety deficiency.
RSystems reviewed the full architectural and engineering plan set, identified every system with a network dependency, and rebuilt the IT infrastructure design from scratch. That review extended well beyond networking: fire alarm integration, security camera alignment, conduit routing for future cable pulls, and close coordination with MEP contractors on power and environmental controls. When problems were found — a fire alarm system that wasn't connected to the network, security cameras that weren't aligned correctly — RSystems escalated them, even when scope disputes made that uncomfortable.
“He identified the problems and the solutions.”
— Jason Stewart, Project Executive, Little Island
Park Operations Manager Kathryn Lewis, who oversaw the park's technical operational readiness for opening, described the dependency simply: "It turns out the internet is connected to everything."
What Was Connected
Every operational system ran through the network
Little Island is not a typical office. It operates 365 days a year with 24/7 staffing, two indoor/outdoor performance venues, public programming, food and beverage operations, and large-scale events. Nearly every operational system on the site had a network dependency — and RSystems was responsible for making sure each one worked.
- Building management and MEP systems — environmental monitoring and controls across the site
- Theatrical lighting and production audio — including Dante-based audio networking across both performance venues
- Genetec — access control and IP camera infrastructure for the entire park
- Digital signage — public-facing displays and wayfinding
- Ticketing and point-of-sale — for events, programming, and food and beverage operations
- Radios and two-way communications — for operations and emergency coordination
- Irrigation controls — for the park's extensive horticultural systems
- Financial and HR platforms — integrated through the identity layer
Every system was tied together through a unified identity infrastructure via JumpCloud, providing centralized access control, auditing, and single sign-on across dozens of SAML and OIDC-integrated applications.
Emergency Systems
Designed for the worst day
For a public space on the Hudson River with large venue capacity, emergency infrastructure wasn't an afterthought — it was a design constraint baked in from the start. RSystems coordinated directly with FDNY, NYPD, and the Hudson River Park Trust to align Little Island's emergency communications infrastructure with external response procedures.
Working with the park's electrical team, RSystems identified excess conduit already installed in the site and designed a redundant power architecture with substantial battery backup capacity — enough to sustain emergency communications through a complete commercial power failure. Every aspect of the outdoor installation was engineered for the specific demands of a waterfront public space: waterproofing, temperature extremes, humidity, and marine exposure.
Getting connectivity to the site was its own challenge. After a year-long effort to secure Verizon service came up empty, RSystems leveraged a longstanding relationship with Pilot Fiber to arrange dedicated internet service for the park — a custom arrangement that required direct relationship capital and would not have been available through a standard procurement process.
Identity & Access
From 7 employees to 200+ in under a year
When RSystems first engaged with Little Island, the organization had fewer than ten people. By opening day, the park had grown to more than 200 employees and contractors spanning operations, programming, food and beverage, and technical roles — all of whom needed to be onboarded, credentialed, and managed at scale.
RSystems designed the identity infrastructure to absorb that growth. JumpCloud was deployed as the organizational directory — a single source of truth for every employee, with integrations to every business application and secure onboarding and offboarding for a team growing faster than most organizations can manage. Nearly 100 portable workstations were deployed with remote onboarding capability, so new hires could be brought online without hands-on setup, regardless of where they started.
Outcomes
What we delivered.
- 10G fully redundant network with 40G backbone — live for opening day, May 21, 2021
- Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series switching for wireless systems throughout the venue
- Cisco Industrial Ethernet Series for exposed outdoor and marine-environment locations
- JumpCloud identity infrastructure — SAML and OIDC integrations across dozens of applications
- Genetec access control and IP camera system
- Dante audio networking for two performance venues
- Emergency power architecture coordinated with FDNY, NYPD, and Hudson River Park Trust
- Pilot Fiber dedicated connectivity — negotiated custom arrangement
- ~100 workstations deployed with secure remote onboarding
- Full systems integration: BMS, MEP, theatrical, signage, ticketing, POS, irrigation, radios, financial, and HR
- 1.7M+ visitors in the park's first year