Floating Garden builds upon Swale, taking into account four years of community input. Commissioned by the inaugural Medina Triennial — All That Sustains Us — Floating Garden opened June 6, 2026 on the Erie Canal in Medina, NY. It’s open throughout the summer in Medina, Thursdays through Sundays. Built on a repurposed industrial barge, it invites people to harvest edible and medicinal plants at stops along the way. These plant species heal, nourish, and root people in seasonal time. 

On water, Floating Garden draws from a global tradition of floating gardens as tools of resilience. From the Chinampas of Mexico to the wetland farms of Bangladesh and Kashmir, floating gardens have allowed communities to maintain food sovereignty and survive ecological upheaval on their own terms. Floating Garden takes root in these traditions. When we can grow, pick and eat food together, we can connect deeply.

Floating Garden will travel down the Erie Canal in the fall of 2026.

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Thank You:

We are grateful to be able to partner with Creative Time; John Thomas Construction; the Medina Triennial; Perkins & Will; RIT School of Architecture and Amanda Reis; and the Urban Soils Institute.

Floating Garden has also received generous support from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation; Guggenheim Foundation; NYSCA; Rockefeller People and Planet Fund; Dana Bourland; Sue and Matt Evans; Linda Reid; LaVon Kellner and Tom Roush; Mike and Josette Taheri; Deanna Viars; Rik van Hemmen.

Build out of Floating Garden, in progress:

Floating Pavilion Collaborators:

Gil Merod, Macky Nobes, Youngjin Yi (Project Assistants / Architecture Students); Noah Baldon, Madeline Bortle, Anna-Leigha Clarke, Ryan Denberg, and Sydney Fox (Architecture Students); Catherine Angis; Vince Christofora, Ian Benitez-Rivera, Sammy Surcel-Debes, and Peter Van Hoof (American Welding Society / Engineering Students); Kimberly Tana (Industrial Design Student); Evelyn Sutkus (Motion Picture Science Student); Moises Tobias (Film and Animation); Ralph Gutierrez (Architectural Intern). Led by Amanda Reis (Assistant Professor and Architect)

Floating Pavilion Sponsors:

Department of Architecture, Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) (Seth Holmes, Grace Rubin, and Erin Hammond)
Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) (Michael Buffalin, Jim Heaney, and Chris Vorndran)
McEwan School of Architecture (MSoA), Laurentian University
Insley McEntee Equipment (Ed Robinson, Kelley Allen, and son)
SB Engineering (Scott Burlingame)
Daydreaming Fabrication and Welding (Jordan Young)