Shifting Manhattan's Shoreline

Over the last three centuries, New York City’s shoreline has expanded in response to urban development pressures. Today, a network of hard infrastructures and hundreds of piers have replaced the original shoreline and its marshes. This has made Manhattan especially vulnerable to sea level rise, storm surge, and pluvial flooding. At the intersection of these issues is an opportunity to reconsider Manhattan’s shoreline as a continuous system of public green infrastructure, one that is connected to the rest of the city’s green spaces. This thesis aims to reclaim the spaces between the existing piers to form a continuous new edge of wetland marshes, parks, promenades, and programmable public surfaces in service of climate resilience and adaptation.