With the 2007 IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) prediction that sea level will rise between 0.6 and 2 feet by the year 2100, we need to seriously consider how to adapt to such drastic global changes. MoMA and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center realize the importance of planning for the impending rise and how it will affect New York City and the surrounding harbor. They have launched a joint program called “Rising Currents” that brings together interdisciplinary teams to re-envision New York’s coast line in the event of climate change-related sea-level rise. The models, drawings, and other documentation generated by their eight week architects-in-residence workshops will be displayed in MoMA’s Architecture and Design Galleries from March 24 to August 9.
The plans take the dyer predictions of the IPCC and give them a positive spin, re-imagining New York’s coast as a dynamic ecological reservoir where city flows seamlessly into sea. The plan incorporates new “blue space” as well as porous streets and an oyster reef. “Rising Currents” has harnessed the “city’s remarkable pool of architectural talent” and placed them into groups, each with an assignment: redesign a specific zone of the city. Here’s the breakdown:
Zone 0
Members of the Architecture Research Office and dlandstudio looked at the northern edge of the Upper Bay and Lower Manhattan. Inspired by an early name for the Hudson River, the Muhheakantuck, or “river that flows two ways”, the team is blurring the boundary between land and sea. The area, as noted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, is actually a “tidal estuary, an arm of the sea where salty sea water meets fresh water running off the land,” so the team wanted to expand upon the filtration qualities inherent in the estuarine setting.
They envision a new Lower Manhattan that is part “twenty-first-century business district,” part “center of regional ecological renewal” and have proposed using porous streets as well as extending the lower part of the island.
Our proposal consists of two basic components that form an interconnected system: wetland edges and filtering streets. The water’s edge is transformed from the present hard sea wall to a gradient composed of three ribbons of open space: a public parkway, fresh water, and salt-water wetlands. Within the city, street infrastructure is rebuilt into a connected series of porous conduits that drain rain water and storm water into the wetlands. These streets continue up to the elevation flooded by a category two storm surge. Water will be the new connective tissue between the city and the harbor.
Zone 1
The rise particularly imposes upon the Northwest Palisade Bay and Hudson River area in New Jersey which includes Liberty Park, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. The team led by LTL Architects sees this imposition as a boon and proposes harnessing the new aquatic area that would be created for
productive new uses, from agricultural fields to aquacultural zones, and from protected existing biological reserves to tidal research fields. A new series of program anchors, including an aqua-hotel, an open-air concert dock, a regional terminal produce market, and a research station complement and enhance the existing tourist sites of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, amplifying the uses of the area.
This “new engagement between water and ground” would be created by substantially lengthening the coastline and adding variations in ground height and water depth to the mostly flat site to better serve as a buffer against storm surges.
Zone 2
The conversion of an archaic industrial fuel site to a more progressive biofuel resource and recreational area is central to the Matthew Baird Architects-led team’s proposal for the Southwest Palisade Bay/Kill van Kull area, including Bayonne, the Bayonne Piers, and northern Staten Island. They plan to take 600 used oil tanks in Bayonne, New Jersey and use them to create biofuel from algae fed by wastewater. In addition, team members envision turning the area into a hub for recycling projects, including producing reef-building units from recycled glass, and opening the site for tourism.
Along the Bayonne Pier on a strip we call the “waste line,” where our recycling plants are located, people will be able to explore (on foot or by car) the processes that convert trash into useful products. Hiking or driving in this reactivated post-industrial landscape connects people to a new natural order.
Zone 3
In the South Palisade Bay and Verrazano Narrows area, which includes eastern Staten Island, Bay Ridge and Sunset park, the nArchitects-led team envisions a dispersed infrastructure of new piers, islands, ferry stops, inflatable barriers, waste-treatment wetlands, elevated residential neighborhoods, and waterfront development corridors. This will create an area that is more resilient to sea-level rose and storm surges, which are predicted to increase in the coming decades. They hope to create “a progressive extension of city life from land to water.”
Infrastructural islands, located within the shallow areas of the estuary, create an archipelago of slowly accreting habitat. During a storm surge they also connect via inflatable barriers (”urban airbags”), forming a protective line of defense for the city’s new multilayered edge.
Zone 4
The Northeast Palisade Bay, Buttermilk Channel and Gowanus Canal area, including Governors Island and Red Hook, was once an “archipelago of small islands interconnected by shallow tidal flats and meandering waterways that teemed with oysters and aquatic life.” The SCAPE Landscape Architecture team wants to revitalize this area and get back in touch with its past. They propose a reintroduction of oysters and muscles to “colonize the sub-tidal and inter-tidal reef netting, filtering excess nutrients out of the water” and creating a reef that would protect against storm surges. The system would consist of a series of oyster nurseries combined with underwater rope scaffolding for reefs. SCAPE envisions:
Impromptu islands emerge through the process of sedimentation in the slowed and protected waters of the flats, providing sanctuary for horseshoe crabs, marine birds, and the occasional seal. Public space with boat hookups, BBQ grills, diving platforms, and amphibious trails form a signature new regional “blue” park network.
Via Treehugger.
Related Posts
What do You Think the Vancouver Skyline Should Look Like?
Sustainable Urban Agriculture In New York
Much Needed Action to Make the South Bronx More Sustainable
Creating Opportunities for Sustainable Transportation in New York
