Central Park Conservancy Announces Opening Details of New Davis Center at the Harlem Meer

Credit: SUSAN T RODRIGUEZ | ARCHITECTURE • DESIGN

The Davis Center, a $160 million investment in Central Park’s north end, will reconnect the Harlem Meer and its surrounding communities with the rest of Central Park, and will provide year-round community access for the first time, through an innovative design for an alternating swimming pool, ice rink and public green, in addition to a re-envisioned building that integrates the landscapes with new amenity space and public restrooms

The April 26th opening day will be marked by a community celebration on the new “Harlem Oval”.

Today, the Central Park Conservancy – the nonprofit organization and civic institution responsible for managing Central Park – announced that the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer will open to the public on Saturday, April 26th, 2025. The Davis Center represents the culmination of decades of work by the Conservancy to restore Central Park’s northern end. The project marks a significant achievement and is an important milestone in the revitalization of this cherished public space. After more than seven years of community engagement, fundraising, and construction, this opening will be a major cultural moment for the city and demonstrates the Conservancy’s unparalleled stewardship of the nation’s most visited landmark, with more than 42 million visitors annually. 

The $160 million project, the Conservancy’s most significant and complex undertaking to date, completely re-envisioned the site’s landscapes and its neighboring natural areas, reconnecting both the ecologies of the area as well as the Harlem communities to the natural beauty of the Harlem Meer. The newly envisioned facility and landscapes will offer new and enhanced outdoor activities, a multitude of free and low-cost programming, and provide unhindered access across the north end of the Park. As the capstone project of the Conservancy’s comprehensive restoration of the Park’s northern end, the new facility replaces the former Lasker Rink and Pool, a beloved but systematically flawed facility that was built in the mid-1960s. The Davis Center will feature a public swimming pool that converts to an ice rink in the winter, and in contrast to the Lasker facility, it will also transform into the Harlem Oval – a public green – in the shoulder seasons, ensuring year-round community access. 

The April 26th official opening will be commemorated with a Community Celebration on the facility’s new Harlem Oval, beginning at 12:00pm. Harlem residents and all New Yorkers are invited to the free family-friendly celebration, which will feature activations from local community-based organizations, food and drink, live performances and hourly tours of the new venue. The completion of the facility will be marked by a formal ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, April 25th with project leadership, elected officials, community leaders, staff and community members. 

The Davis Center will offer a diverse range of majority free and low-cost programming throughout the year, operated both by the Conservancy and other community focused non-profit organizations that will utilize space at the Davis Center. Programming is generously funded by lead donors JPMorganChase, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Philip & Alicia Hammarskjold, and Paula and Jeffrey Gural. 

Shoulder season (Fall and Spring) programming on the Harlem Oval is designed to offer both relaxation and light engagement in a peaceful, natural setting. The Conservancy will offer a variety of lawn games, nature activities, wellness and fitness classes, school field days and tours of the new facility and its surrounding landscapes. 

Winter programming will include ice time access for community-based youth sports, community skate time, and skating and hockey lessons for all ages. The Davis Center is committed to offering low-cost ice time for local Harlem organizations including Figure Skating in Harlem, the Central Park North Stars and the American Special Hockey Association. 

Summer at the Davis Center will feature swim programming managed by the New York City Parks Department, who will operate the public pool. The Gottesman Pool will be open to the public between late June and early September and will be free to access. 

The Conservancy’s work in the Park’s north end has been ongoing since its founding in the 1980s, with the restorations of the Harlem Meer, one of the first major projects, occurring in 1989. The Conservancy has invested over $310 million into the Park north of 97th Street over the past four decades – approximately one third of the Conservancy’s total investments into Central Park. Since the initial planning stages of the project, the Conservancy has taken a community-first approach, building upon strong existing relationships with local leaders, community groups, and elected officials to ensure that the Davis Center reflects the community’s needs and contemporary uses. There has been extensive dialogue with the community at every step of the process. 

The design of the Davis Center – led by the Central Park Conservancy and Susan T Rodriguez | Architecture • Design in collaboration with Mitchell Giurgola Architects – marries architecture and landscape to create nature-based recreational experiences, and reconnects the Park’s north end and the Harlem community to the rest of Central Park. The new public facility sits within the curvilinear geometry of the Park Drive, at the northern end of the 843-acre park just south of 110th Street. Underpinning the design is a commitment to a sustainable renewal of the site and the highest standards of environmentally responsible design, construction and operational practices. The project was originally announced in 2019, and broke ground in 2021.

The City of New York has allocated $60 million to the project, and the Conservancy has privately raised $100 million, while also overseeing the design and construction. An enthusiastic response by donors is bringing the campaign in the north end close to its goal, with the Conservancy privately raising money to underwrite the free and low-cost programming that the facility will offer.