Central Park recreation facility designed as "ultimate fusion of landscape and architecture"
Susan T Rodriguez has designed a revitalised recreational facility in Central Park, rebuilding a 1960s ice rink and pool and reconnecting the park's natural waterways in the centre of New York City.
The Davis Center at the Harlem Meer at the north end of Central Park opened in April 2025, restoring the seasonal recreational facilities of the Lasker Rink and Pool, which have been closed since 2021, to the public.
The project is a collaboration between landscape architects at the Central Park Conservancy, design architect Susan T Rodriguez | Architecture • Design and executive architect Mitchell Giurgola Architects.
"[The Davis Center] marks the intersection of history, landscape and architecture to create more park and a vital new community centre open to all–the ultimate fusion of landscape and architecture that enhances the experience of being in the park," Susan T Rodriguez said.
Reconnecting the Harlem community to the park, the $160 million project spans eight acres and is set into a steep slope.
The monumental elliptical shape was designed to function as an outdoor room that changes program with the seasons – a pool in the summer, an ice rink in the winter and a public green in the spring and fall.
The building itself consists of 34,000 square feet (3,160 square metres) with a 29,000-square-foot (2,695-square-metre) green roof that continues the landscape and pedestrian circulation across the built structure.
Beneath the green roof, a light-filled interior includes locker rooms, skate rentals, concessions and public restrooms along a sweeping hallway with a wood ceiling, locally quarried stone and cruciform columns.
The space can be opened to the outdoors through a wall of floor-to-ceiling, centre-pivot glass doors, transforming the space into a public front porch.
In addition to the public amenities, the project reconnects the watercourse that originally flowed through the Ravine and Huddlestone Arch into the Meer.
The watercourse and park path meander along a vegetated berm and stitch the landscape together across the site.
A freshwater marsh adds scenic and ecological diversity between the stream and the lake.
A new curvilinear boardwalk allows pedestrians to explore the Meer's natural systems, observe wildlife and access the water for canoeing.
"This project completes the reversal of decades of change that treated the Meer landscape as a campus of recreation facilities, without regard for the park's essential purpose and value as a place where all New Yorkers have an opportunity to connect with nature and feel renewed and uplifted," said project executive and former chief landscape architect Christopher Nolan.
"The transformation of the site represents a return to the fundamental idea of the Park as a refuge."
Other recent, large-scale park projects include Heatherwick Studio’s plan for an island park with floating islets in Seoul, the restoration of a historic park in Almería, Spain by Kauh and an urban wetland converted from an industrial site in Shenzhen, China, by eLandscript.
The photography is by Richard Barnes.
Project credits:
Owners: Central Park Conservancy, New York City Parks
Design architect: Susan T Rodriguez Architecture • Design
Executive architect: Mitchell Giurgola
Landscape architect: Central Park Conservancy
Structural engineer: LERA Consulting Structural Engineers
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection engineer: Loring Consulting Engineers
Geotechnical engineering: Langan
Site/civil engineering: Langan
Rink and pool consultant: Stantec
Lighting design: BPI
Sustainability consultant: Atelier Ten
Facade consultant: Werner Sobek
Waterproofing consultant: JRG Consulting Architect
Green roof consultant: Studio Sustena
Soils consultant: Pine and Swallow
Elevator consultant: IROS
Code consultant: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Acoustic consultant: Shen Milson Wilke
Video wall consultant: ACT Associates
Irrigation consultant: Irrigation Consulting, Inc.
Specifications: Robert Schwartz & Associates
Cost estimating: Slocum Construction Consulting
Expeditor: NYCCODE
Owner’s representative: Seamus Henchey and Associates
General contractor: EW Howell
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