Aquarium Proposed to Show River Fish by Bike-Walkway
By Carl Glassman


Cathy Drew and her River Project are like fish out of water. With Tribeca's Pier 26, the marine science facility's former home, now being prepared for demolition, there is no place to display the tom cods, blue crabs, pipe fish and other local aquatic life that are the educational centerpieces of her program.

That could change if Drew achieves her dream. The River Project is seeking funding from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for City Fish, an outdoor aquarium that would be located between the bikeway and walkway just north of Stuyvesant High School. The request, for $900,000 of the $35 million that LMDC will award in March to Lower Manhattan cultural institutions, has the support of the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT), Community Board 1 and local elected officials.


"The main thing we're really missing in the city is contact with nature," said Drew, the River Project's director, who began studying the river's fauna from Pier 26 in 1985.

"Unlike a zoo, these are the animals of our back yard. You get to see what's below the river's surface, just a few feet away."

In the proposed aquarium, the River Project's fish, now wintering in cages beneath Pier 40, would draw a bigger audience than they had when they resided in near obscurity in a shed on Pier 26. The HRPT estimates that 1,000 people per hour traverse the Tribeca section of the bike path at peak times.

"The old exhibit was a sort of roadside attraction," Drew said. "But this one you can't miss."

Fish and tiny invertebrates would live in aquariums filled with 4,000 gallons of water pumped continuously from the nearby river. Visitors would watch the creatures from outdoors through the windows of a specially designed building that can be relocated when that part of the waterfront park goes under construction. Drew said she expects City Fish to remain there for two seasons.

"The issues are how quickly everything can come together in order to have this up and running," Noreen Doyle, an HRPT vice president, said last month at a presentation on City Fish to CB1's Waterfront Committee.
 



There are also questions about the logistics and the government permits involved in bringing fresh and river water to the proposed building and providing it with power. Drew said she was confident that those obstacles can be overcome.

The proposed City Fish building would be partly self-sustaining, with solar cells to provide some power and a soil-lined "green roof" to help insulate and cool the building. It would also capture rainfall, reducing runoff into the river.

If City Fish comes to be, it will share temporary space beside the bike path with Manhattan Youth. That organization's children's summer art program, formerly operated on Pier 25, is expected to be transplanted there, along with a snack concession, according to Bob Townley, Manhattan Youth's director.