By Daniel Katzive
Efforts to rebuild and expand the 79th Street Boat Basin have cleared another hurdle as the project navigates a complex approval process. The Parks Department’s preliminary design for the marina’s new dock house received sign-off from the city’s Public Design Commission (PDC), overcoming objections from preservation groups.
The PDC approved the preliminary plan by a unanimous vote on Monday. Commissioners reacted positively to testimony from the project’s architect highlighting efforts to minimize the dock house’s impact on views from Riverside Park and to Parks Department assertions that youth programming would be expanded. The approval follows a Community Board 7 resolution in favor of the new design which passed in June.
Because the project is over the water, the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission does not have jurisdiction to review it. But nonprofit organizations Landmark West! and the New York Landmark Conservancy testified that they were opposed, citing impact on views from the historically significant Riverside Park and use of materials which Landmark West! called “entirely out of context with the surrounding scenic landscape.” The Landmark West! group also expressed concern that an expanded facility “will turn into a full-fledged marina which looks to serve only an elite few of the community while blocking river access for the many.”
Project architect Adam Yarinsky stressed design features intended to minimize impact on views from the shore in his presentation to the commission. Yarinsky shared diagrams showing the building would not be visible from Riverside Drive, the Henry Hudson Parkway or the Rotunda, and fairly minimally visible from the promenade except for the immediate area of the structure.
The materials, he said, were designed to respond dynamically to daylight and the design includes the use of diagonal columns providing a contextual reference to truss-like structures visible in the old transfer bridge to the south and the George Washington Bridge to the north.
Boaters also continued to advocate for the marina project, with sail instructor David Polakoff testifying he viewed the current plan for the dock house as a fair compromise which will meet the minimum requirements of the boating community. Parks Department Deputy Director of Marine Infrastructure Chris Ameigh told the panel that the marina’s increased size will help address the old facility’s 15-year waiting list for affordable boat slips and allow more educational programming benefiting city children attending neighborhood schools.
The project team’s arguments carried the day, with one commissioner, Laurie Hawkinson, saying she was “very excited to see this exemplary proposal for this kind of a building,” which she said was one of an increasing number of structures that were meeting the challenges of rising sea levels. She also said she viewed the materials as “entirely appropriate.”
A spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corporation told West Side Rag that the project is currently at the 30% planning point and the design team will proceed to 50% design development now that the PDC has signed off, while also continuing to pursue other required permitting reviews and approvals. The team’s goal at this point is for construction to begin in late 2026 or early 2027, according to the spokesperson.
The Public Design Commission has jurisdiction over permanent structures, landscape architecture, and art proposed on or over city-owned property. The commission will review the project again as it moves through the design process. The Boat Basin team is also expected to provide an update to CB7’s Parks and Environment Committee early next year.
For a more in depth look at the plans and challenges involved with the Boat Basin redesign project, please see our article from June 2023.
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I like the new design! And I applaud the architects for incorporating community feedback. I also don’t understand the gadfly complaining that this will block “river access for the many.” This facility will offer community programming! And the old shack that was there offered none.
New York City has so many pressing needs and should not be in the business of building or operating what is basically a marina for a small number of boaters. It’d be better off spending any available public money on improving schools and parks, providing affordable housing (including carrying out NYCHA repairs), repaving roads, and maintaining public security (I’d include MTA services as well, but it’s a state agency). If there is a lucrative opportunity to provide a marina on city-owned waterfront (and the waiting list suggests there is), NYC should set out guidelines, including on architecture, and put the project out for bids from private operators. Hopefully such a competition would raise some badly needed revenues for what really matters in our city, which is not maintaining boat parking for a tiny minority.
Completely concur. Waste of public dollars
Great point. If there is such a need for this then putting it out for bid for private development would surely be the better plan and this is what has happened along much of the west side waterfront from Chelsea Piers to Pier 17.
This is an out of place monstrosity that is completely unnecessary and a waste of public funds especially with the deteriorating condition of Riverside Park where paths are broken and playgrounds are falling into sink holes. This project should be scaled way back.
Yep. The north end of Riverside Park is in awful shape
It should be much smaller, and more in context with its surroundings.
Here’s my hot take: I couldn’t care less about this. The priorities over there should be finishing the 79th street roundabout and BRINGING BACK THE BOAT BASIN! It’s unconscionable that that place has been and will be shuttered for so long.
Especially since this project will benefit only the few folks well enough off to have boats — unless some are actually living on their boats.. Riverside Park needs so much more than this gift to the rich —
@uwser: I’m guessing you mean the Boat Basin Cafe that was under the rotunda? The marina IS the Boat Basin.
Agreed….The shuttered BOAT BASIN is a scandal..A gathering place for friends and families with no plans or hope for resurrection…xxR
Agreed!
Looks nice. build it and also repair all the broken paths, walls, staircases in Riverside Park. And why do these random groups have such say and power of projects to be built.
The architecture looks too modern and totally out of place. It doesn’t relate to the adjoining rotunda, under construction, that has arches and stones and an ancient historical look. I don’t see how the architect relates to the old transfer station near 70th st. either.
Also with all that glass, what are they doing about concerns with birds flying into it? There’s a great mix of a bird population along the river, and I can see how confusing it could be with all the reflections.
The boathouse surely was in need of updating, but this design is out of place. I wonder about other architectural proposals more in line w the immediate area? If there’s ever a 79th st boat basin cafe again, this will be an eyesore.
PLEASE PROTECT OUR BIRDS!!!!!
I’m reading all the comments and i think they are short sighted. why can’t the west side have a nice ferry stop like the east side. It would be a great benefit and maybe reduce traffic,
A ferry stop would be good for us locals to get around the beautiful river .. Lovely views throughout! Why is it considered feasible to build a dock for a few people to keep their fancy boats ? Should be more inclusive and of use for everyone!
Seriously, awfully ugly, ugly, ugly.
Seriously??? People complained that two stories was too high and blocked the view from the restaurant, so they made it one story and raised it on stilts to the same height???
This is a real eyesore and doesn’t belong in our beautiful park.
Its not in the park!
Its over the river.
As I have said in the past, another example of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Another outrageous expenditure of public funds. THE PARK IS IN A SHAMBLES. There are giant craters along Riverside Drive and the paving from about 97th street to 106th Street (or somewhere close) is in complete disrepair. Light poles and drains in the park aren’t repaired for years. You cannot take a jog without twisting your ankle or pouncing into a puddle. There are giant lakes after a rain that are breeding grounds for mosquitos (look today!). The paving over the train tracks is letting water seep into the Amtrak tunnel below (a million dollar repair not done today will become a $100 million + repair down the road). And the powers that be are spending north of $100 million of public funds to repair a monument and build a boat house that is a complete extravagance.
This has been dragging on much too long.
It’s another good resource for this great city.
Just get it done before the cost escalates even more.
This has to be the worst looking structure I have ever seen.
You are ruining the beautiful Hudson shoreline.
Almost as bad an idea as the congestion pricing.
It’s ugly and expensive but it’s necessary to help our struggling boat owners.
What is wrong with these NYC people, I have a design degree from Yale and this structure is over worked, self absorbed and butt ugly.
This boat basin used to be and should be an integrated structure that blends in with the park and the orginal beautiful stone foundations.
Why can’t something beautiful and appropriate be built here instead of this monstrosity?
Steven, we needed people like you over a year ago when this design was going back to the drawing board! If anyone thinks this is an improvement, they are being greatly misled. I’ve been screaming about its design since the beginning when I called it “looking like an Amazon warehouse” — which it did. Robert Moses had a vision for the boat basin with the beautiful stone work, the fountain, the entire integrated design leading to the water. This design ignores all that. I don’t understand how it has gained approval after approval. Future generations will suffer for this modern monstrosity which has no relationship to the rest of the park. I think people have lost their fight, unfortunately.
And when funds are so sorely needed for the upkeep of the park, which serves more people, much more people, than the few boat owners.
It remains frustrating and disheartening that neighbors provide knee-jerk reactions without doing their homework and failing to support their positions with facts. We all choose to live in New York City, ultimately, because of what its maritime advantages meant for its growth and prosperity, both historically and today. Providing access to the river, recreationally, scientifically, and educationally, are significant benefits of what the 79th Street Boat Basin Marina provides.
As I read the comments to the December 17, 2024 article reporting the PDC meeting results, allow me to note: 1) Except for the tennis courts, the marina charges user fees to recreational and for certain educational offerings; no other publicly funded element of Riverside Park (dog run; parkour court; benches; bike paths; hiking trails; basketball court) charges fees – they are free. And guess, what, I don’t have a dog and question the need to have a dog run, but if my neighbors and their dogs derive benefit, than I’m happy to have my tax dollars aid their happiness and satisfy their practical needs.
2) In any city, state, and federal government, there will always be “more pressing needs” than the ones we all question. So when is a “good time” to fund anything but schools and roadways? And, having “non-essential” funding of parks, plazas, and art are what makes cities and towns livable and attractive, even Robert Moses knew that. It might behoove my City neighbors to read New York State’s 2021 “Comprehensive Waterfront Plan,” the vision for waterfront access. Within the context of that report, and in general, New York City should view the 79th Street Boat Basin Marina as a “crown jewel” much as we already do Central Park.
3) We cannot build anything “as if” it was still the 1930s. Even if Clinton Lloyd, Gilmore Clarke, and Robert Moses “rose from the dead” as the architects and engineers, again, of the 79th Street Boat Basin, considering today’s standards, requirements, and realities, they would not and could not build “as they did” in 1934. The current design is thus fitting, proper, and appropriate. Notable – Go look at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre renovation and note that it “won’t be the same” as if it was 1962.
When the 79th Street Boat Basin Marina returns, I invite the naysayers and myopic thinkers to note that most of the marina users are their “non-elite” neighbors, plus schoolchildren, and scientists. I invite them to launch a kayak or learn to sail, and derive the life benefits that the rest of us realize, when eyes are wide open, and we’re not looking just in the mirror.
The rich and poor alike will be free to park their boats at the new marina!
Ok but why does the 3D rendering have a zombie monster in that kayak hahaha
Why not something a bit more….nautical?
What a waste of time and money on something so hideous and out of place with the surroundings!
I’m OK with it. We’ll look right at it from our living room window, so call me not-easy-please. A vast improvement over the earlier versions. Agree with the comments about finishing the 79th St round about. wtf is going on? Oh, I wish I had taken a time lapse. It’s unbelievable.
Does anyone else find it a bit ridiculous that this project is taking 5 to 7 years (if we’re lucky.)
There has to be a better way to move things like this along.
Looks good!
Ferry Slip! Ferry Slip! We UWSiders want a Ferry Slip! PS The building looks like the bathrooms they have on the beach in Brighton Beach and Coney Island! UGLY!!!!!
So excited for this!! I can’t wait to start sailing lessons <3
Reminds me of the Far Rockaway outbuildings
Clarifying for those referencing the 79th Street roundabout, rotunda, terrace and parking garage, that project is under the jurisdiction of the NYC Dept of Transportation; the 79th Street Boat Basin Marina is under the jurisdiction of the NYC Parks Dept.
Yay for the DOT — look at what other “fine work” they are wreaking all over the city.
too small and too stupid looking. That’s all we can do nyc?
It looks like cheap construction and it will be an eyesore right of the bat, never mind about when it ages. It was designed without any consideration to its location and is not considerate of birds.
It’ll probably blow away in the first good wind.
I agree that it should be a private venture and not use taxpayers money at all. Let’s look instead at parks maintenance, over growth control and bathrooms.
In performing your due-diligence, prior to commenting, I suppose you missed the publicized facts: 1)i that the design features bird-friendly glazing; 2) The site is located (a) away from Rotunda Building, and (b) outside of 79th Street viewshed
As someone who worked on public/private projects in NYC, I can tell you that you wouldn’t want this to be designed and built privately. I’m not this design is a great solution for the site, but think about it: Do you want the alternative–i.e., outsourcing a design to a private interest in this location–Riverside Park, Hudson River, rich in history and environmental resources (land and water).
Such projects rarely result in good design. The projects only “consider” community input and priorities; in reality, they tend to ignore them or pay lip service and then sacrifice them when the projects go over budget. And the City either has to go along or risk having nothing.
Why has this project taken so long? The good Rag itself reported that the design changes for the new boat basin “came after seven visits by the city Parks Department’s design team to the Parks and Environment Committee, where it presented changes to the design for the marina’s new dock house. (See “79th Street Boat Basin Redesign Clears UWS Community Board Hurdle,” June 19, 2024).
Sure, it’s good to have community input and local oversight, but then let’s understand that that process takes time, usually more than we think.
That is a lot lot better than the first design.