The four-year project will involve raising the waterfront esplanade at Battery Park to protect against rising tides and ensure usability over the next 80 years.
New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) appointed Stantec to the project, which spans a third of a mile of waterfront along the 25-acre Battery Park. The project is one of several under way or in planning as part of the city’s Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency initiative.
As part of the project, which has a total cost of US$129m, Stantec will lead design plans for a reconstructed wharf at the southern tip of Manhattan. The work will raise the waterfront esplanade approximately 1.5m above its current elevation – 3.4m above mean sea level – to protect the park and nearby community.
“Current sea level rise projections show that the Battery sits in a particularly vulnerable location and needed wharf reconstruction provides a timely opportunity to protect the Battery’s unique character and usability for years to come,” said Stantec principal-in-charge Brian O’Donnell.
Issues to be addressed in the design include in-water construction, interior drainage, and integration of a new wharf elevation with the existing parkland. The project team anticipates using an adaptive design strategy – one that will continue to provide the well-known views of the New York harbour, relief from sea level rise and nuisance flooding, and flexibility for uncertain future conditions. Resilient planting will also be critical in ensuring survivability from major storms while establishing a lush and peaceful setting, said Stantec.
“Increases in extreme weather events are bringing resiliency to the top of city agendas across the world,” said Gary Sorge, Stantec’s discipline leader for landscape architecture. “Stantec is in a strong position to meet those needs and has been bringing forward both green and grey infrastructure solutions that will protect the drivers of our economies – our cities. It takes a truly interdisciplinary approach to make communities both resilient and liveable for future generations.”
The interdisciplinary design will be led out of Stantec’s New York City office and will include landscape architecture, waterfront engineering and environmental review, with the support of several specialist contractors. Design is expected to take 18 months.
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