The floodwall, which runs below grade in the East River Park, emerges above ground along the FDR Drive. Photo by Foad Sarsangi/Courtesy BIG
Aesthetically, the new park is spare and rugged — with a material and planting palette that suggests the durability and scale of earthworks — punctuated by bursts of color on furnishings and in three comfort stations (as allowed by Parks Department design standards, Siegel said). At Delancey Street, the dominant gray floor tiling and metallic furniture are interrupted by a streetside, exuberantly colored basketball court, which also helps spread program areas across the park’s tiered elevations. There’s also a new-and-improved amphitheater, Ilijevich said: “The previous design was a concrete slab, but the new tiered approach introduced lawns.” A slight dearth of shade there, as the trees grow in, will be remedied by a Parks Department canopy that’s being fabricated. The planting palette, meanwhile, is “native, resilient, and diverse,” according to Ilijevich, an improvement from the prior, beloved mature trees that he says were selected in a past generation of landscape design.
Courtesy NYCDDC / Matthew Lapiska
Courtesy NYCDDC / Matthew Lapiska
Beyond ESCR’s added infrastructure, the project also formed and deepened the relationship between federal bodies like FEMA and local agencies over the course of a decade. It also helped crystalize a consortium of local design and engineering specialists, from Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architecture, which selected the dozens of tree and plant species, to ONE, which, as Siegel puts it, helped the project “land in the reality of New York City” – not to mention the dozens of community groups, policymakers, and laborers who shaped and helped realize it. It’s a technical, administrative, and logistical muscle that will need to be constantly strengthened as the city races to expand flood resilience and head off the next big storm.
Mayor Eric Adams announces that the city has completed the first section of East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) ahead of schedule and under budget, a major milestone in the effort to protect more than 110,000 Lower East Side residents. East 20th Street & Avenue C, Manhattan. Thursday, October 17, 2024. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.