Award / Auszeichnung | 09/2014
Holcim Awards 2014 - North America
©Holcim Foundation
Rebuild by Design - Urban flood protection infrastructure
Winner Silver
Preisgeld: 50.000 USD
Architektur
Stadtplanung / Städtebau
Landschaftsarchitektur
James Lima Planning + Development
sonstige Fachplanung
Bauingenieurwesen
Bauingenieurwesen
Geologie
sonstige Fachplanung
Design
School of Constructed Environments at Parsons the New School for Design
Universitäten / Hochschulen
Erläuterungstext
The Big U is a protective system that encircles Manhattan, responding to the needs and concerns of the island’s diverse communities. Stretching from West 57th Street south to The Battery and up to East 42nd Street, the Big U protects 10 continuous miles of low lying geography that comprise an incredibly dense, vibrant, and vulnerable urban area. The proposed system not only shields the city against floods and stormwater; it provides social and environmental benefits to the community, and fosters an improved public realm. Coordinated plans were created for three contiguous but separate regions of the waterfront dubbed “compartments. Each compartment comprises a physically discrete flood-protection zone that can be isolated from flooding in adjacent zones. Each presents unique opportunities for integrated social and community planning. The compartments work in concert to protect and enhance the city, but each compartment’s proposal is designed to stand on its own. Proposed solutions for the components were designed in close consultation with the associated communities and many local, municipal, State and Federal stakeholders; and each is flexible, easily phased, and able to integrate with existing projects in progress.
Beurteilung durch das Preisgericht
To propose a large-scale flood protection system by means of a set of small-scale interventions was viewed by the jury as an ingenious solution that could easily be transferred to other similar conditions – in an age marked by climate change and rising global sea levels. The panel appreciates the project’s conceptual framework proposing to merge the requirements of a “Robert Moses” type of hard infrastructure with the local community-driven sensitivity of “Jane Jacobs”. Here, local neighborhoods actively engage in defining specific programs, functions, and public amenities along a line that acts as a civic infrastructure belonging to the public at large.
©The BIG Team
The Big U: view on the Battery
©Holcim Foundation
©The BIG Team
The Big U: overview
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©The BIG Team
Bridging berm at East River Park
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©Holcim Foundation
©Holcim Foundation
©Holcim Foundation
©Holcim Foundation
©Holcim Foundation
©Holcim Foundation