The Big U
Case Study
The Big U
Location - New York City, NY
Summary - The “BIG Team” planned for adaptable reuse of roughly 10 miles around Manhattan that encompasses an area known as “the Battery”. The key to this design was to make sure that any protective measures here were designed as much for the social and experiential qualities as they were for stormwater management and hazard mitigation around the waterfront. Through public participatory design the team was able to determine the best relationship between these two principles and followed in the ideologies of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs to ensure that “...the elements will become attractive centers of social and recreational activity that enhance the city and lay a positive groundwork for its future.”
Comunity Design
Response
Key Vulnerabilities - After Hurricane Sandy, a large portion of the city’s succumbed to Infrastructure Damage and many people were kept in their homes by the intense Flooding that stopped the Financial District of the city from working for a week. If the city’s many organizations were to rebuild independently, the urban fabric would likely be pieced back together at the sake of the communities’ rich character and connection to the waterfront. A plan that is not well thought out could also infringe on lower income communities and lead to worsened economic conditions as well.
About the Plan - For a design competition titled “Rebuild by Design” the Bjarke Ingels Group designed a set of disconnected flood and hazard protection zones that would independently survive future conditions, and could be installed in phases. The three zones of this design are C1: L.E.S.
North-East River Park, C2: Two Bridges, and C3: Battery-Financial District. C1 is designed to increase commercial and recreational opportunities with a series of pavilions with deployables in between and a berm park separating the buildings from the waterfront. C2 looks at the close proximity between the waterfront and the FDR drive, as well as many buildings that could be waterproofed at the bottom-most levels in, what the group termed, “wet feet”. The underside of the FDR was retrofitted with deployables in case of a storm emergency, but in stable conditions can be used for leisure and recreation activities. Lastly, C3 is proposed to provide park space within a berm as a protective measure and a floodwall with an elevated plaza and pedestrian and bike throughways that sit atop the “Reverse Aquarium”.
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Throughout these three protection zones, green infrastructure such as bio-swales, rain gardens, and street plantings will help to clean runoff stormwater, provide transpirational cooling people walking and for the city as a whole, capture excess CO2 and other gasses within the city’s air, as well as many other benefits that coincide with vegetation in the landscape.
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Today - The team hopes to be in the second year of design and permitting stages, while they continue with community engagement efforts throughout all three communities in the BIG U. This design has gained the support of Senator Schumer, the Borough of Manhattan, the Council of the City of New York, as well as numerous other individuals and organizations that wish to see the completion of this design.
