New York, NY
BRINGING PEOPLE TO THE WATER
Our team vision for the creation of two new waterfront parks, Academy Street Waterfront and North Cove Shoreline, will anchor the rezoning efforts to revitalize this industrial neighborhood and bring the Inwood community together to celebrate, to discover, and to respect their local waterfront.
PARK EXPERIENCES
Two unique parks provide a diversity of experiences that invite people to access and enjoy the waterfront. At Academy Street Waterfront Park offers is an open upland park with meandering pathways, playgrounds, amphitheater steps, an open lawn and stage overlooking the Harlem River. North Cove Shoreline Park provides a more intimate experience at the water’s edge that includes a paved esplanade, nature- oriented play, a grassy lawn with picnic tables, fishing and small boat docks, and a boardwalk that brings people into the restored marshlands.
ECOLOGICAL CONNECTIONS
These two parks will be important hubs within a larger system of open space in the Inwoodneighborhood and along the NYC’s waterfront as they link into the existing Harlem River Greenway as well as the future planned public esplanade. Native plantings are abundant to provide food and habitat for local and migratory wildlife. Marshlands are restored in areas of higher elevation, and existing tidal mudflats are preserved at lower elevations. Within the intertidal zone, low-impact access points such as stepping-stones and boardwalks and observation decks give opportunities to explore and discover nature and ecology. Floating habitat islands offer refuges for birds and marine animals in the marshlands and nesting piers provide habitat for ospreys.
LIVING SHORELINE
The design maximizes ‘bio-structural edges’ at the interface of naturally vegetated slopes and the constructed bulkhead wall. These permeable structures store floodwaters, mitigate wave action, and provide substrates for beneficial aquatic organisms. The shoreline is also comprised of porous rock edges including a variety of boulder sizes interplanted with native floodplain plants and tidepools. At the extents of the restored marsh, oyster filled gabion breakwaters protect the wetlands, direct sedimentation, and attract the growth of mollusks and other filter feeders.
CLIENT: NYC EDC (Economic Development Corporation)
COLLABORATORS/TEAM:
YU & Associates (Lead Civil Engineer, Surveyor, Environmental Engineer), McLaren Group (Marine Engineer + Structural Engineer), Ecology & Environment (Environmental Engineer), (Traffic Engineer), JFK&M Consulting (Electrical Engineer). Toscano Clements Taylor (Cost Estimator)