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Elijah Hong
The current Robert F. Wagner Junior Park, designed by horticulturalist Lynden B. Miller, landscape architect Laurie Olin, and the firm Machado and Silvetti in 1992. The roman masonry of the pavilion and the temple typology present in the layout of the concrete walkways around the lawn give the space a distinguished order in comparison to the high-rise skyscrapers in the background.1
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy
When Superstorm Sandy made landfall in New York City in 2012, 17% of the city’s entire land mass flooded, causing 43 deaths, 90,000 inundated buildings, $19 billion in damage, and millions of citizens displaced. A combination of unprecedented tidal surges exceeded the 100-year floodplain by 53%, with the coastlines of the boroughs receiving the worst of the damages. In Manhattan, the southern tip of the island took the brunt of the flooding, with the largest instance of inundation at 10+ feet on the island occurring in the Financial District.2 In the wake of a volatile weather event and facing down future extremities, the role of the coast as both a buffer and a resilient operation is more important than ever, with the NYC parks system poised to take on a leading role.
The area around the battery and the financial district in Manhattan were inundated by the storm surges that hit the coast of NYC
Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn were shielded by segments of the resilient Brooklyn Bridge Park
Coastal Parkland and Resiliency
Coastal Parkland and Resiliency
According to the former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's PlaNYC report, A Stronger, More Resilient New York, 30% of the land that the NYC Department of Parks and recreation is responsible for is considered coastal land and that parkland that was designed with on-site resiliency programs suffered minimal damage from Hurricane Sandy. Based on the inundation maps, some areas of NYC were protected by the presence of resilient, coastal parks.
Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo (2010)
Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh and his firm, survived Hurricane Sandy
Coastal rip-rap, a barrier between the water and land made of loose rock piles, absorbed the impact of storm surges and deflected their impact
Coastal marshes absorbed stormwater and the topographical features in the park funneled storm runoff into them
Read more about Michael Van Valkenburgh's design here
Hunter's Point South Extension in Long Island City (2018)
Built by TF cornerstone, TBA, and WEISS/MANFRED after Sandy to protect Long Island City from future volatile storms
Softscape solutions that manage the tides, including rip-rap and a marsh built on a landfill
The park uses forensic ecology to identify and restore natural operations to better handle rainwater and storm surges
Parts of current-day Long Island City were once marshes and their functionality is being restored to the coastline
Read more about Hunter's Point development and resilient design
AECOM's Proposed Redesign of Wagner Park
AECOM's Proposed Redesign of Wagner Park
Top Three: AECOM. South Battery Park City Coastal Resilience. digital rendering. Landezine International Landscape Award.Bottom: Battery Park City Authority. Section Cut of the New Pavilion at Wagner Park with Design Flood Elevation. July 13, 2017. digital illustration. Wagner Park Site Assessment and South Battery Park City Resiliency Plan; Executive Summary.
Details
Details
South Battery Park City Resiliency Project: $221 Million project led by the Battery Park City Authority, a two-year installation plan to destroy the current park and raise parts of it up to 20+ feet above sea level
Better hydrological and topographical design that sends rainwater runoff toward the harbor
Small inlet wetland habitat
A new pavilion with a large stormwater detention tank, green roof, and solar panels will be installed on the site of the old pavilion. On-site lighting will be solar-powered and infiltration will be used to collect rainfall
The building and new floodwall deployables, which can be automatically powered or manually pulled up, will be used to mitigate water damage within the rest of the city
Learn more about the BPCA site assessments and CB1 updates
Problems
Problems
Unpredictable storms could betray the floodgate systems; weather records show that while Sandy did not bring much rainfall, Hurricane Ida brought a record amount that triggered flash flooding in NYC. The 10-foot wall against the sidewalk could trap rainwater and flood
Wagner Park did not actually flood during Hurricane Sandy, places around it were inundated instead.3 Should so much money be spent on a location that is already more resilient than its surroundings?
The park would be closed for 2 years barring any setbacks, opening the southern coast to storm vulnerabilities
The operation and maintenance of the flood barrier deployables have not been made clear by the Battery Park City Authority
According to the BPCA deployables workshop, the flood walls can only be manually deployed if a flood warning is issued a minimum of 12 hours beforehand
AECOM's plan for the new Wagner Park creates a raised wall along the edge of the sidewalk, creating a potential bathtub effect behind the park if proper drainage measures are not implemented
The adjacent city suffered the majority of the damage rather than Wagner Park itself, which is already elevated above sea level
Park Potential
Park Potential
Because of the amount of hardscape in the Battery Park City Area and in the newly proposed plan for Wagner Park, the sidewalks along the newly raised wall as well as the walkways in the park should incorporate self-draining sidewalks to reduce the threat of inland flooding. Copenhagen, Denmark has already installed these permeable surfaces into the fabric of their city, and are being used to sustain both their landscapes and urban ecosystems.4 This system would complement the other two water retention operations at Wagner Park, infiltration and green roofing, and could help expand the impact of the park to inland flooding from rainfall in the surrounding city, preventing a bathtub effect behind the newly raised walls and allowing for the park to collect and store more rainfall runoff even with the planned 10% reduction in green space. The porous sidewalks would also help support the NYC sewer system and lower the likelihood of combined sewer overflows. AECOM's current plans indicate a reuse of this stormwater but do not specify in what capacity; an onsite treatment plant would increase the applications of the retained stormwater and again reduce strain on the NYC systems. The success of the rip-rap and tidal marsh combination at Hunters Point South Extension and Brooklyn Bridge Park should also be considered, as there is evidence of historical tidal and stream corridor wetlands on the southern tip of Manhattan, and the wetlands at Hunter's Point were built on landfill, showing the potential to replicate their water storing operations at Wagner Park, which was also built on landfill. Currently, only the small inlet of the park is considering using the material, and studies have shown that an extension of the application to the entire coast or even an underwater deployment in front of the park could help protect the shore from the effects of constant wave action from New York Harbor.
The new pavilion at Wagner Park should consider evolving its idea of resiliency by actively serving local, vulnerable populations as an evacuation center. AECOM's plan has incorporated multiple environmentally friendly energy operations into the site and should take advantage of its ability to produce and store its own energy and water. With an onsite, non-grid-reliant system of water and power, the building has the potential to serve as an emergency communication point for first responders and vulnerable populations, and provide real-time flooding information during intense weather events. It may seem irrational to position an evacuation center in the way of an oncoming storm, but based on Battery Park City's distance from the current evacuation sites and the varied promptness of evacuation orders and resident responses, a resilient space in close proximity to a vulnerable population would be beneficial during periods of transit and communication outages. If the floodwalls are unable to be manually or automatically deployed in time, then the pavilion, which would be flood protected without the use of flip-up gates, would be one of the safer locations for vulnerable residents. The potential for this can be seen at Isabel, Puerto Rico, where a private residence known as Shacks Beach Villa utilized on-site water capture and storage and was able to retain both water and power functions in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, and because of this was used as a base of operations by FEMA.5 While the importance of such an outpost is lessened in a heavily urbanized center like New York City, the loss of power and failure of telecommunications in many parts of New York during and after Hurricane Sandy suggests that a resilient community center could expedite recovery following any future weather events.6
Areas vulnerable to storms (indicated in red, yellow, and green respective to threat level) and nearby evacuation centers. Battery Park City is entirely highlighted in red and its residents are expected to travel northeast to Chinatown during times when transit is very likely to be unavailable
Notes:
1 Machado Silvetti, "Wagner Park, From Concept to Construction," Machado Silvetti, June 2017, http://www.machado-silvetti.com/PERSPECTIVES/170608_WagnerPark/article.php
2 PlaNYC, A Stronger, More Resilient New York, June 2013, pg 11-14, https://www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/downloads/pdf/final_report/Ch_1_SandyImpacts_FINAL_singles.pdf
3 Audrey Wachs, "Architects aren't happy with plans to remodel this Manhattan park," The Architect's Newspaper, May 16, 2017, https://www.archpaper.com/2017/05/wagner-park-remodel/
4 Nick Mafi, "These Self-Draining Sidewalks Have Just Been Installed in Copenhagen-and Could Be Coming to Your City Soon," Architectural Digest, May 29, 2019, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/self-draining-sidewalks-installed-copenhagen
5 Jennifer Bolstad, Landscape Architect, interview by author, December 1, 2022
6 PlaNYC, A Stronger, More Resilient New York, pg 15-16,
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