East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Transforms Manhattan Waterfront With Flood Infrastructure and New Park Space
The East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) initiative has revitalized the waterfront of Manhattan's Lower East Side, offering flood defense and recreational areas for more than 100,000 residents. This project emerged after Hurricane Sandy struck in October 2012, inflicting $19 billion in damages, and was selected based on the BIG U proposal during the 2013 Rebuild by Design competition. Construction commenced in spring 2020, with a portion reopening last summer, which includes the Corlears Hook Pedestrian Bridge and various amenities. The design accounts for a 2.5-foot rise in sea levels by 2050, with an elevation of up to 2 feet. Plans also include a third pedestrian bridge at East 10th Street by 2027 and the Solar One Environmental Center set to open in September 2025, with additional sections still in progress.
Key facts
- Hurricane Sandy caused an estimated $19 billion in damages in New York in October 2012
- The 2013 Rebuild by Design competition was launched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- The BIG U proposal covered Manhattan's coastline from West 57th Street to Battery Park and East 42nd Street
- The city assembled the ESCR delivery team in 2014 through an RFP, adding landscape architecture firm MNLA
- East River Park, a Robert Moses-backed initiative from the 1930s, closed for construction in spring 2020
- A stretch of the revamped park reopened last summer with six additional tennis courts and an amphitheater
- Sea level rise is projected at 2.5 feet by 2050, with design accommodating up to 2 feet more elevation
- The Solar One Environmental Center opened in September 2025 in Stuyvesant Cove
- A third pedestrian bridge at East 10th Street is scheduled to open in 2027
- The next 100-year storm is predicted to hit sometime after 2050
Entities
Artists
- Molly Bourne
- Daniel Sundlin
- Stephen Levin
- Robert Moses
- Kristine Klein
- Bjarke Ingels
Institutions
- BIG
- ONE Architecture
- ARCADIS
- Buro Happold
- MNLA
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- FEMA
- Solar One
- New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
- Office for the Next Environment
- Hardesty Hanover
- Wesler-Cohen
- AKRF & KSE
- Jacobs
- Hazen & Sawyer
- Pentagram
- Siteworks
- Hortus Environmental Design
- FHI Studio
- Starr Whitehouse
- James Lima Planning + Development
- The Architect's Newspaper
- Penn South
Locations
- New York City
- United States
- Lower East Side
- Manhattan
- East River
- Williamsburg Bridge
- Montgomery Street
- East 25th Street
- East 12th Street
- Corlears Hook
- Delancey Street
- East 10th Street
- Stuyvesant Cove
- StuyTown
- Battery Park
- South Street Seaport
- Battery Park City
- West 57th Street
- East 42nd Street
- Brooklyn
- FDR Drive