Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency
Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) refers to a range of climate change adaptation strategies of coastal management to address impacts on the city in the wake of the extensive Hurricane Sandy flooding of 2012.[1]
A more localized alternative to the New York Harbor Storm-Surge Barrier, it has some continuity with the centuries-long Lower Manhattan expansion trend and seeks to compensate for the historical loss of wetland buffer zones, and would be integrated into the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway.
History
[edit]After Sandy, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg differed on their preferred infrastructure responses, with Cuomo favoring a storm barrier to protect the entire estuary, and Bloomberg localized protection for Lower Manhattan inspired by Battery Park City. Several studies have been commissioned since, including the BIG U from Bjarke Ingels Group for a semi-circle of berms that would allow small-scale controlled floods,[2] in contrast with the more ambitious seawall proposals.[3] Their 2014 plan largely involved constructing a series of berms in Lower Manhattan, inland from the shoreline.[4][5][6] but has been deemed inadequate in parts and too costly to maintain.[7][8]
Bloomberg's 2013 concept of "Seaport City"[9] has been replaced by the FiDi-Seaport plan,[10] as part of the wider LMCR initiative by the De Blasio administration. It updates the BIG U with more substantial land reclamation that could be funded and finished, avoiding the occasional temporary flooding of the earlier plan and its maintenance costs.[11][12] Initial plans focused on landfilling and building up East River Park,[13][14] where construction began in 2022.[15]
In 2022, the Battery Park City Authority announced plans to demolish and rebuild Wagner Park in Battery Park City as part of the LMCR project.[16][17] A groundbreaking for a LMCR barrier at Battery Park took place in May 2024.[18][19]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency". edc.nyc. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ "The BIG U". www.architectmagazine.com. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ Barnard, Anne (January 17, 2020). "The $119 Billion Sea Wall That Could Defend New York … or Not". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ Feuer, Alan (October 25, 2014). "Building for the Next Big Storm". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- ^ "NYC: The BIG U". Rebuild by Design. April 9, 2023.
- ^ "The BIG U". American Planning Association.
- ^ Green, Jared (June 20, 2019). "Berms Aren't Enough: NYC Shifts Course on "Big U" Resilience Plan". THE DIRT.
- ^ "Ripples of Resilience: Lower Manhattan's Diverse Waterfront Communities; Waterfront Alliance". December 3, 2020.
- ^ Quirk, Vanessa (August 2, 2013). "Bloomberg Moves Forward with Controversial Seaport City". ArchDaily. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ "The Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan". FiDi Seaport Climate. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ "BIG U APRIL 2019 UPDATE – Rebuild by Design". www.rebuildbydesign.org. April 30, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ Green, Jared (June 20, 2019). "Berms Aren't Enough: NYC Shifts Course on "Big U" Resilience Plan". THE DIRT. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ Hanania, Joseph (January 18, 2019). "To Save East River Park, the City Intends to Bury It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ Kimmelman, Michael (December 2, 2021). "What Does It Mean to Save a Neighborhood?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ "East Side Coastal Resiliency". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
- ^ Hu, Winnie; Barnard, Anne (October 21, 2022). "A Plan to Save a Beloved Park From Flooding Has Angered Its Biggest Fans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
- ^ Feldman, Eric (August 16, 2022). "Pushback to Battery Park City Resiliency Project leads to proposed changes". Spectrum News NY1. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
- ^ Murdock, Vanessa (May 7, 2024). "NYC starts raising Battery shoreline as part of climate plan. See the renderings of the final result". CBS New York. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
- ^ "Ground Broken at Site of NY's Battery Coastal Resiliency Project : CEG". Construction Equipment Guide. May 9, 2024. Retrieved April 10, 2025.