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The people who fish on the river all know how an afternoon of watching the river flow can refresh the spirit. River Rooms gives visitors and neighbors a place to sit and contemplate the river— without baiting a hook.

River Rooms

Part of Art @ Bartrams Garden with Mural Arts Philadelphia, 2018


Supported by the William Penn Foundation in concert with Tide Field

Dimensions

6 Riverrooms, 13' long x 6' wide

Permanently installed

Six wooden boat-shaped platforms placed throughout the grounds of Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden create a four-season invitation to reflect on the Schuylkill River’s surface and its surroundings. A series of open-air “rooms” designed for contemplation and reflection, River Rooms invites neighbors and visitors alike to pause and spend time along the banks of the Schuylkill. Based on the design of an old rowing boat commonly used on the river, these six wooden structures dot the landscape at Bartram’s Garden and Bartram’s Mile, giving people a destination at the water’s edge. Each room provides different views of the water and offers different ways of interacting with the river in all seasons—one room is designed particularly for fishermen, while others invite people down to the water’s edge or up into Bartram’s grassy meadow. Designed in concert with Tide Field, a tide-responsive floating installation that draws attention to the Schuylkill’s daily tidal changes, River Rooms also creates accessible places for everyone to sit and quietly observe the tides.

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