Riverfront Makeover Goes Full Speed Ahead
The City of Middletown, Connecticut sought to revitalize its riverfront with a new community boathouse and event facility that would anchor its redevelopment efforts along the scenic Connecticut River. Aimed at transforming the riverfront into an entertainment and recreational destination, the site previously was home to bulk storage petroleum facilities. During an 18-month riverfront study, community members expressed significant interest in building a new rowing facility that would serve current and future rowing programs, as well as provide room for expansion.
The City engaged our firm and architects ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge to design a new 70,000 SF community boathouse and banquet facility. The design included rowing facilities and associated equipment storage and locker rooms for local high schools, Wesleyan University, and community rowing groups. The boathouse design included a rowing tank for training, offices, an upper-level function hall able to accommodate 300 people, and river overview decks.
The site is adjacent to the river within the flood plain, and, as a former brownfields site, is also in need of remediation. The shoreline will be reworked into a stable, aesthetically pleasing and functional bank, and the docks replaced and improved to allow for premiere rowing regattas. The project is receiving funding from a $2.6M grant from the Connecticut Department of Community and Economic Development for environmental assessment, remediation, and planning.
Services Snapshot
Our work includes site remediation and waterfront engineering services, as well as building engineering (mechanical and electrical) for the new boathouse facility.
