“This is part of the movement to soften and naturalize our river edges in general,” says Eric Rothstein, a managing partner at eDesign Dynamics, a water resources engineering firm. “That’s a global trend now. Previously everything was bulkheaded with concrete, and now it has been realized that that approach isn’t good for resiliency, and it certainly isn’t good for habitat. This is one of many attempts to re-soften the edge.”