On the Water | Palisade Bay

A two-year investigation of New York’s Palisade Bay funded by the AIA’s 2007 Latrobe Prize, On the Water | Palisade Bay proposed the redesign of the upper harbor of New York and New Jersey in response to the rise of sea levels and storm surges.

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aerial of Lower Manhattan with proposed islands

The project culminated in a book, was the basis for the exhibition Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront at the Museum of Modern Art and was exhibited at the Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.

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On the Water | Palisade Bay book laid out

Led by the engineer Guy Nordenson, a multidisciplinary team of collaborators researched and documented the physical conditions of the harbor. GIS mapping of topography and bathymetry provided a means to precisely measure the impact of elevated water levels and storm surges on the surrounding land, buildings, and infrastructure.

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proposed Palisades Bay masterplan

Focused on a vision of the harbor as a new regional center, the project was partly a response to the failure of “hard” engineering during Hurricane Katrina. Instead of building floodwalls to keep the water out, “soft” engineering strategies including a constructed archipelago and wetlands were proposed to blunt storm surge force and address the advance of water onto land. The result is a resilient relationship between land and water, beneficial for both people and the surrounding habitat.

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man interacts with water table model
Water table studies modeled island forms that would reduce storm surge damage.
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  • mapping Palisade Bay currents through proposed island type 1
  • mapping Palisade Bay currents around existing docks
  • mapping Palisade Bay currents through proposed island type 2
Awards

2010 AIA New York City, Merit Award for Unbuilt Projects

2007 AIA College of Fellows, Latrobe Prize

Writing
On the Water | Palisade Bay, 2010
A+U, Currents on Sustainability in the USA, 2010
"Lecture" in white text on a gray background.
The Future of Design, Lecture, 2009
Places Journal, On the Water, 2008