A towering sculpture that has graced Battery Park City’s waterfront for nearly four decades is being ripped down to make way for the ritzy nabe’s controversial resiliency plan — and the artist who built the beloved work is distraught over its loss.

Crews on Wednesday began demolishing “Upper Room” by artist Ned Smyth — previously appraised by the Battery Park City Authority at $1.5 million — to access the ground beneath that will soon become a tidal gate.

It is the only one of the BPCA’s 20 art installations that will be destroyed to make way for the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency (NWBPCR) project.

“I asked, ‘Why, I thought people really liked it?’ … Almost nothing I can do can stop them,” Smyth, 77, lamented to The Post.

The BPCA first alerted Smyth that his artwork woul

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