Create a Coastal Park
The goal of the Red Hook Coastal Park would be to provide a softer edge that offers views and recreation as well as protection.
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Protection
Red Hook needs a first line of protection from storm surges and rising sea levels.
Sea walls have traditionally provided this kind of defense, but they cut off the land from views and access to the water. A concrete wall around Red Hook would clearly be unacceptable to the Red Hook community.
Can we achieve the same goal in a better way?
A second line of protection, further away from the existing shoreline, could create a buffer zone with breakwaters, dikes, ponds to filter runoff or absorb water from storm surges. Taller barriers built farther from the shore would minimize obstruction of views to the water while maximizing the protection from storms.
COASTAL PARK AND BUFFER
Source: Terreform ONE
Essential Steps
Careful exploration of this idea with the Red Hook community is of course an essential first step:
Preferences ›
We would need to know what preferences and concerns they had about the variety of possible forms such projects might take.
Support ›
At the same time, conversations would need to be held with flood insurance companies and the civil government, whose support would also be crucial.
Impact ›
The New York City Economic Development Corporation could also help gauge the beneficial impact of various plans on Red Hook's economy.
Protecting Red Hook with a Coastal Park
Understand the long-term and short-term plans for creating a coastal park for Red Hook.
Short-term plan
Long-term plan
Completion of the new perimeter barrier and coastal park would be a long-term goal, but in the near term, we can develop temporary fabric structures that are deployable in an emergency and capable of protecting for a few hours. Use of these barriers could be used to collect data on flooding patterns and to increase trust in the plan for a permanent barrier. Most important, it could improve Red Hook's security and resilience against floods sooner.
Long-term plan
Short-term plan
Long-term plan
The construction of a coastal park may sound like an expensive undertaking until insurance savings are calculated. For example, creating several miles of bulkhead, landscaping it, and filling the space could easily cost $50 million and take 10 years. Yet recall that insurance companies paid out $50 million in damages to Red Hook from Hurricane Sandy—a single storm. Moreover, the transformation of Red Hook into a non-flood plain by this perimeter development could qualify for federal Housing and Urban Development grants and other sources of funding that could offset the costs.
Short-term plan
Explore the Solution
Resilience | Coastal Park
Source: Terreform ONE
Flood Protection: Bike Path/Playground
Pervious surfaces reduce storm water runoff, replenish groundwater recharge, and lessen impact on the municipal system.
Recreation Water Areas and Protection
A rapidly deployable barrier system to protect against storm surges and flooding. These could be a series of permanent and removable gates.
Community Shared Protection to Gate Canal System
Maximize protection from rising water in a localized buffer zone.
Ideas for Reshaping Red Hook
These ideas represent an approach to solving problems of resiliency and sustainability that coastal cities around the world can adapt to their own needs.
Rekindled Hopes for Red Hook ›
The Red Hook Innovation District is a $400 million project that would renovate 12 acres in the heart of Red Hook into multi-use structures that would preserve the neighborhood's traditional red-brick industrial look while adding public plazas and park space.
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Establish a Network of Green Corridors ›
Green corridors are an opportunity to transform and reinvigorate neighborhoods like Red Hook by enhancing circulation, absorbing or channeling runoff from rainstorms, and enabling the growth of vegetation.
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Inspire With a Model Block ›
The design and implementation of a model block could encapsulate shared goals for living in a sustainable, equitable, and resilient community and serve as a template for development in Red Hook and beyond.
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Share this project to make others aware of the proposed solutions for coastal cities like Red Hook.
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Interactive experience created in partnership with ion interactive.