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Central Park just scored a winter upgrade—and, for once, it’s happening uptown. The brand-new Gottesman Rink at the Davis Center officially opened this week, giving New Yorkers a brand-new ice playground tucked right into Harlem Meer. If your mental image of the park’s north end still includes the aging Lasker Rink, this is your invitation to move on: the Conservancy has replaced it with something far more ambitious, beautiful and accessible.
The $160 million Davis Center is now the crown jewel of the Conservancy’s decades-long effort to restore the park’s northern landscapes. The rink is set within a green-roofed structure built directly into the slope above the Meer. In summer, this same space is a pool and in spring and fall, it becomes a public green. But right now, it’s a full-size sheet of ice with panoramic views of the water and one of the prettiest winter backdrops in the city.
And for the Conservancy, this moment has been a long time coming. “With the opening of the Gottesman Rink, the Central Park Conservancy celebrates both a new chapter for the Davis Center and the culmination of more than four decades of dedication to Central Park,” said Betsy Smith, the president and CEO of the Conservancy, in an official statement.
The old rink operated just half the year and dealt with ongoing maintenance issues, but the Gottesman Rink is designed for the long haul. The ice season includes a slate of free and low-cost programming, including open skate, hockey clinics and group classes. Local organizations that relied on the rink, like Figure Skating in Harlem and Ice Hockey in Harlem, now have dedicated ice time again. Sessions are affordable for all, starting as low as $5 for adults during off-peak hours and children under 3 skate for free.
The light-filled interior gathering space doubles as a warming hut and floor-to-ceiling glass opens onto the rink in warmer months. New pathways reconnect long-separated areas of the park and the project has also restored the original watercourse that flows from the Ravine into the Meer.
For the Conservancy, the rink is the culmination of a 40-plus-year investment in the north end. For skaters, it’s simply a gorgeous new place to lace up. And for anyone who’s ever wondered why the south end gets all the winter fun, consider this your sign to head uptown: the north end just entered its golden age.