FloatLab

​​FloatLab, a first-of-its-kind public structure in the United States, offers visitors a rare, bird’s-eye view of the ecological wonderland in their own backyards.

Designed by artist J. Meejin Yoon and Höweler + Yoon Architecture with Bartram’s Garden and Mural Arts Philadelphia, FloatLab is the country’s first tide-responsive experience. Starting in September, visitors to Bartram’s Garden and the Bartram’s Mile section of the Schuylkill River Trail will come face to face with an urban river in motion, thanks to an innovative ballast system, which allows its circular platform to rise and fall with the rhythm of the Tidal Schuylkill River.

Get ready to reconnect with the life-sustaining, beating heart of our city through hands-on workshops, outdoor art programs, kayaking, fishing, and other riverfront activities. Gather, create, reflect, and learn: With FloatLab, the river is yours to explore.

How Does FloatLab Float?

FloatLab is a semi-submersible structure that floats using principles of equilibrium, displacement, and buoyance within the Tidal Schuylkill River.

The Tidal Schuylkill is the southernmost portion of the Schuylkill River, located south of the Fairmount Dam. A river that is tidal follows the same rhythms as the ocean, with tides going in and out twice every day. In the Tidal Schuylkill, the direction of the flow reverses about every 6 hours, and the water level fluctuates by 5 to 7 feet as the tide goes in and out, creating wetland and mudflats along the banks.

By holding and releasing water, FloatLab constantly calibrates to stay at the water level, allowing visitors to be closer to the water in a new way.

Pedestrian Surface

A sloping perimeter allows visitors to descend safely below the waterline.

When visitors arrive on FloatLab, it may feel like accessing a dock: at the landing, FloatLab’s highest point, visitors’ feet will be just above the level of the water. Moving around the circular ramp will bring visitors to eye-level with the river–while still remaining safe and dry within FloatLab.

Substructure for Ballasts

Internally, FloatLab is framed like a barge.

The substructure is the structural frame and enclosure beneath the deck. This is comprised of a steel angle frame, with supports along the sides, bottom, and top, to create and support the steel ballast chambers.

Ballast Chambers

Ballast chambers hold water to raise and lower FloatLab like a submarine.

A ballast chamber is a watertight space that can hold water, lowering a floating structure’s center of gravity. By filling chambers with precisely calibrated volumes of water, FloatLab sits level and balanced, maintaining at least nine inches of freeboard, or the distance between the waterline of the river and the “deck” of the platform. These chambers also have a mechanical pump that can add or remove water from FloatLab as needed.

Buoyancy Chamber

This reserve holds air, providing upward force.

The buoyancy chamber is a sealed space that holds air for reserve, or additional, buoyancy. This trapped air helps keep the platform stable if other chambers take on additional water, like during a storm, giving the pumps time to remove any unnecessary water.

Artist Statement from J. Meejin Yoon and Höweler + Yoon Architecture:

“FloatLab is a platform, vessel, and lens that enables the public to experience the Schuylkill River and its ecology in a meaningful way. The project aims to create enhanced environmental awareness through an aesthetic experience of the water. By allowing visitors to directly engage with and re-imagine the river, FloatLab seeks to promote environmental stewardship. We believe public art that literally changes perspectives can create public awareness and shift collective consciousness around urban nature and environmental health to demonstrate how these systems are interrelated.

“In physical form, FloatLab is a 75-foot-wide inhabitable floating steel ring. It is designed to accommodate the tidal water levels of the Schuylkill River, which see a 5–7 foot change daily, through a system of ballast chambers and mooring piles—not unlike a boat or pier. The structure frames the water both literally and figuratively and creates a new experience of the river by allowing a public promenade into the water to see, hear, and sense the river in a heightened and unfamiliar way. The circular form provides an accessible path that connects visitors directly with the river, while the sectional tilt offers an eye-level view of the water.

“Functioning as a laboratory of sorts within the Schuylkill, FloatLab will be a venue for public activity and bring focus to the improvements of Philadelphia’s riverfront. Visitors will be able to experience a panoramic view of the 50-acre Bartram’s Garden, a designated National Historic Landmark, and the south Schuylkill River’s transforming industrial landscape. FloatLab’s chartreuse color, inspired by the autumn leaves at Bartram’s Garden, serves as a reminder of the continuing legacy of the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America and the capacity for the vibrancy of nature to focus our attention on the environment. Despite the damaging industrial history of the Schuylkill River, decades of ecological restoration beginning with what became the first Federal Superfund project in 1949, exemplify the opportunities of ecological restoration, but also the need for continued progress. FloatLab will be a landmark project for Philadelphia and will provide an important space for collective contemplation, experience and discussion that can catalyze a community-wide environmental consciousness.

“We worked with naval engineer C.R. Cushing to develop the engineering and ballast system for FloatLab, which subdivides the circular form into 10 chambers beneath and adjacent to the walking surface. Similar to the ballast on ships, these chambers are filled with predetermined amounts of ballast water to lower FloatLab into the water in a balanced manner, with the outer edge of FloatLab sitting just 9” above the water. Before certain weather events and over the winter, this ballast water can also be removed from the chambers to limit water ingress. In the event that water from wakes or waves enters the walking area below the water surface, a drain at the bottom of the ramp will discharge water back into the river. Furthermore, in the event of a large ingress of water, the ballast chambers contain sufficient air (buoyancy) to keep FloatLab afloat until the water can be pumped out. FloatLab will only be open when staffed, and the team has worked closely with Bartram’s Garden so that FloatLab can be incorporated into their existing water programming and water safety protocols. The team developed a prototype in 2016 to review this process before proceeding with the project, and safety has continued to be a guiding principle as we develop this exciting and unique project.”

Financial assistance provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Honorable Josh Shapiro, Governor.

Support also provided by the William Penn Foundation; the City of Philadelphia: Cherelle Parker, Mayor, Jamie R. Gauthier, City Council 3rd District, Susan Slawson, Parks & Recreation Commissioner; the Philadelphia Housing Authority through the Department of Housing & Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Planning and Action Grant program; The Albert M. Greenfield Foundation; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the Hess Foundation; the 25th Century Foundation; Another Light Foundation; Bank of America; the Kligerman Family; Elizabeth Sterling; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Zone Management; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Updated October 2024