RISING CURRENTS EXHIBITION: PROJECTS FOR NEW YORK’S WATERFRONT

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) hosted a workshop and exhibition to generate design solutions addressing the environmental impact of climate change and sea level rise over the next several decades.

eDesign Dynamics was the ecological and hydrology consultant for Matthew Baird Architects’ team, focused on a site located within the Kill Van Kull and Bayonne portions of the New York City/New Jersey waterfront. The team’s overall design approach was to transform the mostly industrial site into a working waterfront. Over the eight week workshop, the team researched and developed several design interventions. These included the retrofit of an oil refinery to be a site for biofuel production and the creation of a recycling plant that would turn glass into interlocking jack pieces to serve as reef building blocks, protecting the shoreline from storm surge and rising water. The strategies developed by Matthew Baird Architects’ team and the work of four other teams culminated in an innovative set of physical and digital models and drawings on display over a five month long exhibition at the MoMA.