by: Kristen Richards Hon. ASLA Hon. AIA
It was a perfect September afternoon for the 14th annual Architects’ Regatta to set sail from its new mooring at Hudson River Community Sailing on Pier 66 in Hudson River Park. We Regatta groupies watched the race from the end of Pier 66 Maritime (this writer’s favorite new find!). It was a very different kind of Regatta than previous races at the Manhattan Yacht Club in Lower Manhattan (which, sadly, lost its lease). The Hudson is very wide at West 26th Street, and the 18 sailboats with their fearless crews looked very small in the middle of that big, big river. There were a few gasps from spectators as we watched the tiny boats maneuvering around the Manhattan on an AIANY Around Manhattan Boat Tour, several water taxis, and a lumbering garbage barge that barged right into their midst.
All returned to port a little wet for wear – but unscathed. Tales of the afternoon’s racing adventure and amusing trophies were passed around aboard the 1929 Lightship Frying Pan. It is a delightfully creaky old boat that sat underwater for three years before being rescued and restored. What makes it so charming is that the interior restoration retained “the barnacle-encrusted, sunken-ship motif,” as described by its caretakers.
This year, the New York Architects’ Regatta Foundation raised $125,000 for five river-based charities: the New York Harbor Sailing Foundation; SoundWaters; the Sailing Foundation of New York; Rocking the Boat; and Riverkeeper.
These are the 2015 Regatta results:
1. Zaskorski & Notaro Architects (Repeat Winner)
2. CetraRuddy
3. Ennead Architects
4. Murphy Burnham & Buttrick
5. RAMSA II (Robert A.M. Stern Architects)
6. Fuller & D’Angelo
7. Turrett Collaborative Architects
8. Grimshaw Architects
9. Ted Moudis Associates II
10. BKSK Architects
11. Lawless & Mangione Architects and Engineers
12. Perkins Eastman
13. HOK
14. Marvel Architects
15. Ted Moudis Associates I
16 Hogg/Williams
17. CWB Architects
18. RAMSA I