Central Park Conservancy puts final touches on Harlem Meer construction

NEW YORK — Central Park’s Lasker Rink and Pool took its last lap almost four years ago in early 2021. Its closure made way for a new vision.
Now the new pool has been poured, marking significant progress on the highly anticipated attraction.
Among the rocky outcroppings on the northern end of Central Park, a new yet familiar landscape is taking shape.
“The building kind of fades away into the earth and doesn’t become the object,” said Bob Rumsey, Central Park Conservancy’s landscape architecture director.
Rumsey and construction director David Turner led our tour through Harlem Meer. Their vision reimagines the old Lasker Rink and Pool, replacing it with the Davis Center, a cool, curved facility designed to disappear into the schist, its wall set by local stone and capped by a green roof.
Central Park Conservancy CEO Betsy Smith calls it the capstone of a decades-long comprehensive commitment to the community.
“We’re very grounded in the history of the park,” Smith explained. “Its purpose is to make people in New York feel that they’re not in New York anymore, so it isn’t like going to an entity and then leaving and going home. It’s being in the whole park and that was really what drove our design.”
Considering access for all, with a roll-in entry option, what will become the eighth-largest pool in the city serves up fun from the facility, featuring a skylight to brighten playtime and shine through pivoting glass doors down to the heated floors.
Guests will also be able to access the space all year long, with a new artificial turf lawn being installed in the off-season.
“They will come to be on the Harlem Oval, I think that’s what we were going to call it,” Smith revealed. “They feel that they’re in Central Park and have all the benefits of being in a natural environment.”
In homage to Olmsted’s original design, a major feature daylights a waterway and highlights the once-hidden Huddlestone Arch.
“The stream flows through the ravine and then out to the Meer, and there’s a path through that,” Turner described.
The team excavated part of the lake to dredge decades-old sediment and remove boulders to be used on the new path, now extending into a floating boardwalk to connect parts of the park.
The nonprofit Conservancy spent $160 million on the extensive undertaking, with $60 million supplemented from the city and the rest procured through private donations.
“It’s very unusual to see that in New York,” said Smith. “I think it’s one of the reasons why we’ve been so successful, because we’ve been able to pull these different entities together in support of a really better, more beautiful park.”
The Davis Center comes complete with a continuing pledge to offer free and low-cost programming, allowing all to once again be able to enjoy the wonders of swimming and skating alongside Harlem Meer.
The Davis Center is set to open sometime next spring. Stay tuned for announcements about grand opening activities.
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