The Davis Center is a new recreational facility—a pavilion and landscape—integrated into the topography of Central Park. Fusing history, architecture, landscape and community, the facility is open to the public year-round–a pool in summer, rink in winter and green in spring and fall. The project replaces an inaccessible and deteriorated 1960’s facility that was open to the community only 6 months of the year. The design seamlessly blends the pavilion into the Park’s natural setting with an accessible green roof covering the entire building. This creates a scenic overlook with views of the surrounding landscape and frames a monumental elliptical outdoor room that transforms seasonally. Beneath the building’s green roof is a light-filled interior gathering space that opens onto the outdoor room through a series of center-pivot floor-to-ceiling glass doors along the length of the pavilion. The curved back wall of the space, clad in regionally quarried stone is washed by daylight from the skylight above with a series of large-scale openings that lead to a sweeping passageway providing access to locker rooms, skate rentals, concessions and public restrooms. The comprehensive renewal of the site has transformed it into a vital new civic resource.
