GREEN ENGINEERING NEWS - eDesign Dynamics

22 Oct 2025

Forward Momentum on the Manresa Wilds Project

Proud to be a part of the #ManresaWilds team transforming legacy fossil fuel infrastructure into vibrant social infrastructure! EDD is leading the Natural Resources design for the site, focusing on preservation, enhancement, and restoration of the saltmarsh, terrestrial forests, and shoreline habitats.

On July 13th, 2025, at the Community Engagement Event & Celebration, the Manresa Island Corporation revealed the park’s vision and plan, and introduced its identity as Manresa Wilds. Drawing inspiration from ancient symbols, local wildlife, and the natural forms of the Sound, the Manresa Wilds glyphs create a living language for the park.

Check out the new website for the vision of the park HERE at manresawilds.org >

Read the New York Times article on the project with beautiful photos of the site by Iwan Baan >

15 Oct 2025

MVVA Chosen to Lead YZD Development, with EDD Support

American landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc (MVVA) have just been named to lead the next stage of transforming Toronto’s old Downsview Airport lands into a new district called YZD, converting the remnants of aviation into a framework for civic life. eDesignDynamics will be supporting MVVA by organizing sustainability guidelines for future development, focused on stormwater management and urban ecology.

Read the exclusive piece in Canada’s “The Globe and Mail” (the country’s newspaper of record) on the next stage in this urban development HERE>

Plans for Sojourner Truth State Park swimming facility.

18 Jul 2025

EDD’s Restoration Work for Sojourner Truth State Park Continues

Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced the groundbreaking for the buildout of major elements of Sojourner Truth State Park (STSP) in Ulster County, including a new swimming facility and bathhouse pavilion.

eDesignDynamic’s scope in STSP included restoration planting throughout the site. Specifically in this region of the park, EDD designed native restoration planting zones which surround the ‘lake beachfront’, including hardy, regional species which can adapt to the wide range of environmental conditions and atypical soils of the quarry site. EDD developed novel planting typologies to allow for tree and groundcover material to successfully establish in-situ within the quarry rock face and steep slopes of the site.

EDD also completed restoration designs which will be constructed in a future phase: Adjacent to the swimming pavilion, EDD developed plans to enhance and restore wetlands just south of Quarry Lake (now known as Lake Sophia). These wetlands will employ a ‘hummocks’ planting method to create microtopography which allows the restored wetland to adapt to varied hydrology conditions between wet and dry seasons. The design intent is to develop a closed-canopy system to minimize the threat of non-native and invasive plants which tend to thrive in disturbed, post-industrial landscapes like Sojourner Truth State Park.

Read the Governor’s press release HERE>

Image of people on city street for article "Strengthening Social Infrastructure for Climate Resilience" by Franco Montalto

18 Jul 2025

EDD Founder Pens Article for Green City Journal

EDD’s founder and Drexel University professor, Franco Montalto, recently co-authored — with Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Mimi Sheller — the article “Strengthening Social Infrastructure for Climate Resilience” for the digital magazine, The Nature of Cities. In their essay, they ask:

— Who do you call when the floodwaters rise?

— Who checks in when the power goes out?

It’s not just about the infrastructure you can see, such as roads, pipes, and grids. It’s about the invisible networks of care, trust, and knowledge that hold communities together.

Across the Caribbean and the U.S. Northeast, neighbors are organizing, students are building, and resilience is growing — not in isolation, but in solidarity.

Even as federal support fades, social infrastructure is already doing the work. That’s where real resilience begins.

Read the full essay HERE >

Gansevoort Peninsula at North Edge with Salt Marsh during sunset

30 Apr 2025

EDD’s “Living Shorelines” at NYC’s Gansevoort Peninsula

In early April, EDD’s Nicholas Parisi presented at the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) NY’s “Climate Action Forum 2025: Nature-Based Solutions: Better Infrastructure Integration.” Parisi presented EDD’s work as Ecological Restoration leads for the Gansevoort Peninsula project at Hudson River Park; the presentation was titled “Living Shorelines.”

EDD’s design restores an intertidal saltmarsh and tidepool complex on the park’s northern edge, the first successful saltmarsh restoration on Manhattan’s west side. The design also included subtidal habitat restoration features such as oyster gabions and reefballs, which have shown successful recruitment and growth of oyster colonies since the park’s installation in 2023.

Click on photos below to enlarge and to read captions & photo credits.

How it started:

photo of Oyster Gabions being installed at Gansvoort Peninsula and engineered EDD

Reef ball being installed at Gansvoort Peninsula, engineered EDD

How it’s going:

Gansevoort Peninsula Salt Marsh in the afternoon - photo by Barrett Doherty

Gansevoort Peninsula at North Edge with Salt Marsh during sunset. Photo by Hudson River Park Trust.

36 Hours in the Hudson Valley by the NYTimes

14 Apr 2025

#1 Recommendation in the Hudson Valley by the NYTimes

We’re thrilled that the very first recommendation in the New York Times’ recent article “36 Hours in the Hudson Valley” is visiting Sojourner Truth State Park! eDesign Dynamics led the habitat restoration component on this 520-acre Kingston park on the west bank of the Hudson River. For this work, we received an American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Honor Award for Analysis and Planning last year.

The Times is right: you should visit!

eDD, in cooperation with two partners — the lead designer, The Olin Studio, and Hudsonia — conducted an ecological and hydrological site survey to determine the role that site hydrology and subsurface conditions play in supporting existing habitats. eDD mapped habitats, soil, and surface water observations and prepared a natural resource inventory to inform priority recommendations for habitat preservation and restoration. eDD completed an FQA (Floristic Quality Assessment) for the final master plan which included recommendations for a range of interventions to enhance ecological, recreational, and educational benefits on a local scale while also addressing the site’s larger role in the Hudson River Estuary and negotiating park maintenance, cost, and various site users.

Read the article HERE>

28 Mar 2025

YZD Design Competition

We at eDesign Dynamics are very excited to have been approached by the landscape architecture firm, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc (mvvainc.com), to join their team for Toronto’s “Runway at YZD” Design Competition (yzd.ca/runwaydesign). The MVVA team is one of just five to be selected for the shortlist and invited to take part in a closed RFP (Request for Proposal) to transform the runway of the former Downsview Airport into a linear, publicly accessible space animated with community uses, public amenities, and year-round cultural programming. The winner will be announced mid-2025.

Learn more about the design competition HERE >

Hoboken, NJ, mayor Ravi S. Bhalla speaking at the second community meeting on Maritime Park Phase I.

26 Jan 2025

Our Work on a “Living Shoreline” in NJ

eDesign Dynamics attended the second community meeting on Maritime Park Phase I this week in Hoboken, NJ. EDD team members Amanda Bayley and Nicholas Parisi spoke with Hoboken Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla and community members, discussing the benefits of living shorelines, how they better adapt to sea-level rise, and how to successfully integrate ecology-driven designs into public waterfront projects.

With landscape architecture firm SCAPE, and engineering team Colliers, EDD is leading the design of one of the first living shorelines on New Jersey’s Hudson shore. The design currently includes a substantial salt marsh and tidal pool complex, resilient shoreline stabilization with a planted riprap edge, and native transitional upland zones.

EDD is also leading the design of a temporary learning nursery where herbaceous and woody material will be grown to acclimate to the site’s microclimates, and ultimately be planted in the second phase of the park’s construction.

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