Nine years after J. Meejin Yoon first ideated Float Lab with Eric Höweler, the much anticipated, walkable promenade in the Schuylkill River has an opening date. According to Mural Arts Philadelphia, Floating Lab will open to the public on October 1, 2026.
Float Lab will debut on the shoreline of Bertram’s Garden, a West Philadelphia park founded in 1728. It will run parallel to natural tidal wetlands and historic Lenni Lenape sites, and serve as an immersive public utility for Philadelphia, and the region more broadly. Mural Arts Philadelphia is Float Lab’s client.
While Float Lab got its started in 2017, Höweler & Yoon started working with Mural Arts back in 2010. That year, the Boston-based architecture firm completed Light Drift, a temporary lighting installation, on the banks of the Schuykill River. “What we learned was that the waterfront in Philly is beautiful, but somewhat overlooked,” Eric Höweler told a local reporter.
Float Lab made waves (pun intended) when Höweler & Yoon Architecture released renderings for it in 2018; that year it earned an honorable mention award by Progressive Architecture. It was supposed to open in 2022, but was then delayed.
Its client, Mural Arts Philadelphia, has been raising money for Float Lab since 2018. Its main benefactors are the William Penn Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Knight Foundation, and others.
The project’s appeal is partly in how it will enable visitors to experience the Schuylkill River in a new light. Float Lab will be 75 feet in diameter; guests will descend down its ADA-compliant ramp until they are eye-level with the water line. This opportunity is unlocked by Float Lab’s innovative ballast system.
Classroom areas and even gallery space will be set aside at Float Lab. This will allow scientists to conduct research, art students to take painting classes, and nature enthusiasts to observe floating gardens and freshwater mussel beds.
