The Interpretive Center Presents…The Floating Water Workshop

The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center is proud to be the recipient of a $700,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to support final design, engineering, construction documentation, and program plans for this leading-edge project, to be situated just south of the Water Works complex, along its esplanade.

The Floating Water Workshop will serve as a natural extension of our mission, and will build upon existing initiatives by taking learning and experimentation to and on the river. The Workshop will also serve as a means to encourage interest in and stewardship of the river and the watershed while advancing scientific research and best sustainability practices in Philadelphia.

The Floating Water Workshop is predicated on the believe that the health of our rivers and our watershed are inextricably linked to the interest and passion of informed citizenry and communities, and to the public pollution control programs that have been put in place over time that will require consistent public support and investment. However, there are very few safe opportunities in Philadelphia to get onto the river even though surface water abounds in our region. There is even less access mentally as the general public continues to perceive our rivers as polluted and dirty.

We see the Floating Water Workshop as a means of genuinely creating and fostering an “aquatic commons”; a shared public arena and science lab near and on the water. This water-centric platform will help to activate and revitalize under-utilized and neglected areas of the iconic FWW complex while redefining the surface of the river as a space for public access.