Rising Currents: A New Urban Ground - ARO Architecture Research Office

As sea levels and storm surges rise, A New Urban Ground unites ecology and infrastructure to preserve and enhance life in Manhattan.

lower Manhattan with proposed landscape buffer

Low-lying and densely inhabited, Lower Manhattan sits in the path of any storm surge. After a two-year investigation of New York’s Palisade Bay—funded by the AIA’s 2007 Latrobe Prize—we were invited by the Museum of Modern Art to address this challenge with a contribution to their 2010 exhibition “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront.” The exhibition presented the work of five design teams who each reinvented sites throughout New York City. Our two-part proposal with landscape firm DLANDstudio creates a new paradigm for ecology within the city that not only protects Lower Manhattan from rising waters but also enriches day-to-day life.

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The west side of Manhattan is defined by a crenulated pattern of urban estuaries and city fabric.

The proposal consists of two basic components that form an interconnected system: porous green streets and a graduated edge. Porous green streets create a network of absorptive surfaces for excess water and provide much-needed park space in a famously dense district. On the edge of the island, three interrelated high-performance systems block higher sea levels and mitigate storm surges: a productive park network, freshwater wetlands, and tidal salt marshes. Together, these interventions build upon existing systems to create a new ecological infrastructure to support our city.

West Street is reconstructed and renamed Western Parkway for its green space, a light rail transit loop, pedestrian walkways, and bike paths.

section of proposed Hanover Square intervention

Hanover Square: within the area affected by a Category 2 hurricane, the roadbed is rebuilt as a network of porous green streets to absorb rainfall and channel storm surge inundation out to the harbor.

section of proposed Water Street intervention

Water Street runs parallel to the shoreline and is designed to hold storm-surge volume and drain back to the harbor.

Coenties Slip: A linear forest below street level runs along the East River to the Brooklyn Bridge, providing a first line of defense against storm surges.