FloatLab Arrives, Bringing a New Public Space to the Schuylkill

FloatLab Arrives at Bartram’s Garden, Bringing a New Public Space to the Schuylkill

A bright yellow ring now floating on the Schuylkill River is set to give Philadelphia residents a new way to experience the city’s waterfront.

The structure, known as FloatLab, arrived this week at Bartram’s Garden in Southwest Philadelphia, where it will serve as a public gathering space for workshops, art programs, kayaking, fishing and other riverfront activities.

At 75 feet wide, FloatLab is being described as the first tide-responsive public space in the United States.1 Designed by artist J. Meejin Yoon and Höweler + Yoon Architecture in partnership with Bartram’s Garden and Mural Arts Philadelphia, the project has been in development for a decade.

Its defining feature is an innovative ballast system that allows the circular platform to rise and fall with the river, giving visitors an unusually close, water-level view of a stretch of the Schuylkill that organizers say has long felt out of reach.

“It’s striking right, but that’s what’s really cool about it,” Caroline Winschel of Bartram’s Garden said. “Makes you look and think, wait, what happens in SW Philly? What kind of river is there? Where are the wetlands?”

The platform is expected to open to the public this fall and will be free to use. Organizers say more details on grand opening events and programming for all ages will be announced soon.

For visitors and neighborhood residents alike, FloatLab is intended not just as a new attraction, but as a new vantage point on a historic river and a section of the city that often gets overlooked.

“I think it will add to the interest and attraction to the south end of the trail, make it more appealing to people,” visitor Ed Johanningsmeier said.

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