NYCkayaker Pier 26 Boathouse Design Meeting - notes

[Graeme Birchall]

Greetings;

I attended the public meeting on the design of the proposed Pier 26 
boathouse yesterday afternoon.  The meeting began with the HRPT staff 
presenting a new design that was actually a minor modification of their 
existing boathouse design, which is mostly a restaurant – with a 
boathouse attached.

All agreed that the proposed boathouse would "work".  In this sense, 
even a couple of containers to store boats in would "work".  What was at 
issue was whether it would be worthwhile to do a complete redesign, and 
to then build a much larger and presumably better boathouse (with or 
without an attached restaurant).  The HRPT staff seemed to be very 
reluctant to do this - because (they said) this would probably delay 
construction.

It was agreed that a complete redesign of the boathouse would be an 
option to be considered.  This might mean that construction is delayed. 
  The finished boathouse is going to be around for fifty years, so there 
was a desire to see it built right.

One person pointed out that the process used to design the boathouses in 
the park was flawed.  The way it has worked in the past is that the HRPT 
hires an architect who, in coordination with the HRPT staff, designs the 
boathouse.  The largely finished design is then presented to various 
interested parties for "feedback", which is necessarily limited because 
the design is, by this stage, so far along.

Another problem that I observed is that there seemed to be a certain 
lack of ambition on the part of the HRPT staff to build a really good 
public boathouse at Pier 26.  A public boathouse at this location has 
the potential to be one of the BUSIEST boathouses in the world.  Thus it 
would be really nice if the HRPT staff made an effort to build one of 
the world's BEST public boathouses.

Graeme

Graeme Birchall