![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_DSC0.jpeg\")
The floodwall, which runs below grade in the East River Park, emerges above ground along the FDR Drive. Photo by Foad Sarsangi\/Courtesy BIG<\/p>\nThe floodwall, which runs below grade in the East River Park, emerges above ground along the FDR Drive. Photo by Foad Sarsangi\/Courtesy BIG<\/p>\n
Aesthetically, the new park is spare and rugged \u2014 with a material and planting palette that suggests the durability and scale of earthworks \u2014 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\u2019s tiered elevations. There\u2019s also a new-and-improved amphitheater, Ilijevich said: \u201cThe previous design was a concrete slab, but the new tiered approach introduced lawns.\u201d A slight dearth of shade there, as the trees grow in, will be remedied by a Parks Department canopy that\u2019s\u00a0being fabricated. The planting palette, meanwhile, is \u201cnative, resilient, and diverse,\u201d according to Ilijevich, an improvement from the prior, beloved mature trees that he says were selected in a past generation of landscape design.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_5DDC.jpeg\")
Courtesy NYCDDC \/ Matthew Lapiska<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_ESCR.jpeg\")
Courtesy NYCDDC \/ Matthew Lapiska<\/p>\n
Beyond ESCR\u2019s added infrastructure, the project also\u00a0formed\u00a0and deepened\u00a0the relationship\u00a0between federal bodies like FEMA and local agencies over the course of a decade.\u00a0It also helped crystalize a consortium of local design and engineering specialists, from\u00a0Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architecture<\/a>, which selected the dozens of tree and plant species, to\u00a0ONE<\/a>, which, as Siegel puts it, helped the project \u201cland in the reality of New York City\u201d \u2013 not to mention the dozens of community groups, policymakers, and laborers who shaped and helped realize it. It\u2019s a technical, administrative, and logistical muscle that will need to\u00a0be constantly strengthened\u00a0as the city races to expand flood resilience and head off the next big storm.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_HUDicon_web.svg_2410.jpeg\")
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The floodwall, which runs below grade in the East River Park, emerges above ground along the FDR Drive.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39501,39502,14235,39503,9,11,10,39504,20848,39505,39506,39507,6524],"class_list":["post-79466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-akiva-blander","tag-big","tag-bjarke-ingels","tag-mnla","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nycddc","tag-nycedc","tag-real-estate-and-investment","tag-resilience","tag-resilient-cities","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}