Bring New York
Back to the Water
A community boathouse that brings safe, year-round water access to New York City youth and families.
Operated by Row New York, in partnership with NYC Parks.
New York is a city surrounded by water — yet for generations, we've lived with our backs to it. The Harlem River Rowing Center changes that. A place where world-class architecture meets community purpose. Where the discipline of rowing becomes a pathway to transformation. Where every New Yorker, regardless of zip code, can find their place on the water.
Cornell. Columbia. NYU. Princeton. Vanderbilt. Harvard. Dartmouth. Where Row New York alumni have gone — and where the next class is heading.
Our Manhattan program is full. One hundred and ten students rowing, and two hundred more on the waitlist — kids who already know they want to row, and have nowhere to put a boat. Meanwhile, more than 230,000 New York City public school students attend schools without a single full-time PE teacher. The boathouse is how we say yes.
Lord Norman Foster, Pritzker Prize laureate. Apple Park. The Reichstag.
The Gherkin. Six decades shaping the modern world.
This project seeks to create a world-class rowing facility and community-focused education center… above all else, the building must be a fun place to visit.
Five Boat Bays
Storage and launch for competition-grade shells
Indoor Rowing
Erg studio for training, coaching, and learn-to-row
Two Classrooms
Free for community and educational programming
Community Dock
Fully accessible. Open to all New Yorkers.
Scullers'
Row
In the late nineteenth century, dozens of boathouses lined these banks — a working-class rowing community rivaling Boston and Philadelphia. Over time, industry and infrastructure buried that legacy.
We're not introducing rowing to the Harlem River — we're bringing it home.
The new boathouse is the first major public rowing facility in Upper Manhattan in over a century — an anchor for recreation, learning, and belonging on a revitalized waterfront.
Bringing Rowing Back with Foster
Blue Space
Is Public Space
Every New Yorker deserves access to the water. The Boathouse brings that promise to the Harlem River: 18,000 square feet of public waterfront, free and open to all, built where communities have called these neighborhoods home for generations.
For Every
New Yorker
- Youth rowing & academic programs
- Adaptive and para-rowing
- Masters competitive & recreational
- Veterans rowing
- Community learn-to-row
- Environmental education
- College prep & recruitment
- Free community programming
The Project Is Ready.
Now We Fund It.
Build the Boathouse
Shovel-ready. A once-in-a-generation partnership between Row New York, NYC Parks, and Foster + Partners. Become a Founding Steward.