By Scott Etkin
After more than three years of construction, the Davis Center ice skating, recreation, and swimming facility located at the Harlem Meer in Central Park’s North End is expected to open on April 26th.
The Central Park Conservancy broke ground on the project, which replaces the Lasker skating rink and swimming pool, in September 2021. Lasker opened in 1966, but the site experienced flooding due to an engineering miscalculation that diverted a stream into a culvert. The renovation now underway is designed to eliminate the flooding problem by “daylighting the stream,” which restores the stream’s original above-ground flow after it was previously buried or redirected underground.
The project also positions the new building more seamlessly into its surroundings, enabling more continuous pathways around the Harlem Meer shoreline, according to representatives from the Central Park Conservancy, who explained details of the project at a meeting Monday night of Community Board 7’s Parks & Environment Committee. Lasker was a “visual and physical barrier to the park, disrupting the flow of pedestrian circulation,” said Sandy Huber, senior vice president for capital projects.
The bulk of the 20,514 square-foot Davis Center is designed to be less noticeable to park-goers because it lies partly beneath the Central Park Drive. The top of the building that isn’t obscured by the drive will be a “green roof” planted with trees. A glass curtain wall across the front of the building can be fully opened to create a porch-like setting in warmer months.
Another change is that, while the Lasker rink and pool was closed in the spring and fall, the Davis Center will remain open during these “shoulder seasons,” thanks to an artificial turf field that will be used to temporarily cover the facility. The field is intended for recreational use, not intensive sports (the Conservancy’s renderings show people picnicking on the turf). Public bathrooms at the facility will also be open throughout the year.
Free or low-cost programming for adults and children, organized in partnership with local groups, is planned. Entry to the new swimming pool will be free; ice skaters will pay for use, though the nonprofit conservancy said it plans to subsidize skating fees with private donations.
Beyond the facility itself, the project’s scope also includes revamping the surrounding area to make it more walkable. Pathways will be linked between the Meer, Huddlestone Arch, and the North Woods. A boardwalk with handrails is also being added along the edge of the Meer.
Huber described the new building as being “integrated into the landscape” and fusing “architecture and landscape architecture” in the style of Central Park’s original designers. The intention is to shield the building from a distance, she said, comparing it to how Bethesda Terrace is a “very architectural element in the park, but you don’t see it until you come upon it.”
Updates about the project are available by subscribing to the Conservancy’s North End newsletter – HERE.
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Looks great. Please just put a lot of cameras, security, and and surveillance in this area.
Good news!
So many naysayers lamented this project when it was announced. But anyone who walked the area saw how truly awful it was, and even now, before completion, it’s so much better.
Before, you’d walk from the lovely waterfall, under the Huddlestone Arch, and emerge into a service area behind the pool with dumpsters and loud, humming machinery. The stream emptied into a clogged grate. In front. the pool presented a concrete wall to the Meer, and the paths were ugly concrete without landscaping.
And more year-round restrooms are really needed in the park! Congratulations to the Conservancy.
You speak as if somehow you’re on a victory lap after having proven something. Some of us actually liked the old facility and regretted having both the earth’s and the City’s resources put into a project that replaced a piece of NY history (admittedly, a somewhat gritty one). Also, quite a few years of recreation were lost in the process. All of that being said, the new design IS attractive and I hope it will be enjoyed.
The changing rooms and showers in the old facility were definitely on their last legs. Very excited to be able to swim laps in the morning again this summer and make use of the new facilities.
You better hope there are lifeguards. Lap swimming cancelled for last two years I gather
Yay! Glad it is almost done and can’t wait to check it out later this spring (and the pool in the summer – the older ones was getting a little long in the tooth)
Let’s hope the ice is much better than the Lasker ice.