“It’s a great decision,” Mr. Emery said. “It shows great respect for the estuary. It preserves the estuary as the legislature intended. I believe he came to believe he was being manipulated by the trust as much as the public was.”

But that was not the sentiment of the pier’s supporters, who included the local community board, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Senator Chuck Schumer.

Madelyn Wils, president of the Hudson River Park Trust, said in a statement that she was “deeply saddened” by Mr. Diller’s decision, “not simply because this would’ve been one of the world’s greatest piers, but because this was a project the community so resoundingly wanted, and that millions would one day enjoy.”

Senator Schumer had a sharper-edged response. “For such a small group of people to hold up a public and philanthropic project that would benefit so many is just awful,” Mr. Schumer said.

The opponents included the City Club of New York, which has few members and was almost dead just a few years ago. It was revived by a group of activists to fight zoning changes under the Bloomberg administration.

The pier, envisioned by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick, would have been the capstone of Hudson River Park, a four-mile-long strip of green along the Hudson that was created in 1998 as a city-state partnership. The Hudson River Park Trust was created to oversee its development and operation.

Mr. Diller also enlisted the help of the producer Scott Rudin and the director Mike Nichols.

Speaking at IAC headquarters, a sinuous white glass building designed by the architect Frank Gehry that sits on 18th Street, a short distance from both the elevated High Line and what would have been the walkway to Pier 55, Mr. Diller said the idea was born in November 2011. It came at a party for the High Line, to which he and Ms. von Furstenberg have been major donors.