The Columbia University
Crew Facility is located on the western edge of the Baker Field athletic complex
at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, adjacent to Inwood Hill Park. The
site affords waterfront access to the Harlem River for the collegiate rowing
program. The original program required the replacement of three existing shell
storage/repair buildings with a single new structure. However, in order to
retain the existing residential scale of the facility and accommodate the
tight budget, our firm proposed to divide the project into two phases, the
first phase to consist of an unheated three bay shell house and aerobics facility,
and the second phase to include locker rooms, repair shop and additional shell
storage bays. The new Shell House, subsequently named the 1929 Boathouse,
is located along the shoreline directly to the north of the existing Remmer
Boathouse. The Shell House consists of three 21 by 76 foot boat storage bays
on the 5,000 square foot ground floor and an aerobic training room on the
2,000 square foot mezzanine.
An 80 foot long balcony faces the water and affords a spectacular view of
the picturesque convergence of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers at Spuyten Duyvil.
The Shell House has a structural steel frame, structural concrete slab at
grade and is supported on steel piles driven to bedrock. The walls are concrete
block with white stucco finish to complement the white painted brick of the
Remmer Boathouse and the roof is metal standing seam roofing with slate gray
paint finish to complement Remmer's slate roof. The project site, formed of
boulder landfill, is highly constricted and environmentally sensitive. The
first phase required extensive site improvements including compliance with
D.E.C. requirements for porous fill over much of the site to prevent runoff
into the river. Site utilities, parking and a guard booth were also replaced
in this phase of the project. The final completion of the project will see
a community of visually related, residentially scaled structures knitted together
in a waterfront park.
