Alluvial March of Days

The River Project, a highly regarded, Lower Manhattan-based non-profit that aims to protect and restore the ecosystem of the Hudson River Estuarythrough scientific research and education programs, will hold a Summer Cruise fundraiser this evening aboard the Hornblower Hybrid, a floating events venue and excursion yacht that is based at Pier 40.

The event comes at a crucial time for the River Project, as it faces uncertainty over the future of one of its key programs, the Estuarium, a combination laboratory, public exhibit and learning space designed to offer hands-on programs in the urban ecology of New York Harbor and the larger Hudson River ecosystem.

The Estuarium operated as a community facility at Pier 26, in Tribeca, from 1986 through 2005, when it was demolished as part of the larger plan by the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) to refurbish the dock. This move was made amid expectations by community leaders and elected officials that the River Project and the Estuarium would be welcomed back to Pier 26, once the rebuilding was complete.

That assumption was cast into doubt at the April 17 meeting of the Waterfront, Parks, and Resiliency Committee of Community Board 1(CB1), when HRPT president Madelyn Wils, offered an update about Pier 26, where work on the $30 million reconstruction project is expected to begin before the end of summer.

Turning to the Estuarium, she said, “we have a very ambitious plan right now for a two-story facility that would house two kindergarten-through-eighth grade classrooms, three college or post-graduate classrooms, and a significantly sized technology exhibit — a museum-quality type of facility, with a small aquarium.””It’s a $50-million project, and we have $10 million toward it,” Ms. Wils continued. “We are currently looking for an anchor donation,” for the remaining $40 million. “So we’re looking for a significant amount.”

“But, if we are not able to get the kind of anchor contributions that we’re looking at, then we will scale back the project.”

The prospect of raising $40 million in new donations to support the Estuarium in the next few months appears to be far from certain. This calls into question whether the River Project, which has been temporarily based at Pier 40 (on the Hudson River waterfront, near Houston Street) since the reconstruction of Pier 26 began more than a decade ago, will ever be able to return to its original home.

In this context, tonight’s event aboard the Hornblower Hybrid (which derives it name from a unique design that draws power from hydrogen fuel cells) may prove to be a crucial opportunity not merely to raise funds, but to demonstrate community support for an organization that has been a mainstay in Lower Manhattan since the 1980s.

Among Monday evening’s honorees will be Pete Malinowski, executive director of the Billion Oyster Project, and Mark Kurlansky, author of, “The Big Oyster” and “World Without Fish.”

For more information, or to purchase tickets (which are priced at $250), please email cathy@riverprojectnyc.org, or browse www.riverprojectnyc.org.