Greenpoint's Sci-Fi Landscape

One of the more visually interesting elements of America's most polluted waterway--AKA Newtown Creek--is the sci-fi Greenpoint landscape that has been under construction for several years. Theses strange looking structures that look they could be part of Epcot Center or a World's Fair, if not for the industrial surroundings, are part of the Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. Those egg-type structures are huge devices that, in effect, treat sewerage. The current upgrade to the sprawling 53 acre plant is part of a $2.2 billion, 13-year project. Work on the facility has been underway since 2003. What we want to know is: Why did they build that big stepped landing on Newtown Creek? Is it a design flourish that no one but a handful of workers at the plant and some barge captains will ever see? Is it future waterfront public access? Or did someone have grand visions of greeting visiting dignitaries who row up in their gondolas? The big plant did have its own landscape architect, by the way.