Poised on riprap overlooking the water, the new boathouse sits along the Pier 5 Uplands of Brooklyn Bridge Park. Providing secure open-air boat storage at grade level, with a multipurpose room and public restrooms safely above floodwaters on the upper floor, the architecture of the 5,000 sf boathouse is purposeful, economical and resilient.

Designed with a new maintenance and operations building on the opposite end of the site, both new buildings were developed concurrently with the landscape of the Pier 5 Uplands. The one-and-a-half mile long park has transformed the former industrial waterfront into an exemplar of urban landscape design.

The structure adapts to each hour and season, appearing opaque or translucent, rugged or elegant, depending on the time of day. The upper level of the boathouse appears to float, wrapped with metal grilles that create a dynamic display of light and shadow throughout the day and glow at night when backlit. Shaded by the grilles, large southwest-facing floor-to-ceiling windows in the multipurpose room provide expansive views of the harbor and lower Manhattan. Robust materials including galvanized steel structure, gray fiber cement panels, anodized aluminum grilles, exposed concrete floor, and plywood interior walls are carefully composed to elevate the quality of this prosaic building.

A waterfront beacon for the Brooklyn community and visitors alike, the porous structure is an extension of the Pier 5 Uplands, connecting the landscape to the waterfront. The project is targeting LEED-Silver certification.