NEW YORK—The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the winning design for a project to protect part of the Lower East Side from future floods.
The winning design was the biggest of four projects awarded by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Mayor Bill de Blasio Monday. The other projects will be built in Hunts Point in the Bronx, Tottenville on Staten Island, and in Nassau County.
The federal investment for the four projects totals $540 million. The winning designs beat out more than a hundred entries in a competition started last summer. New York’s need for resilient infrastructure has become a multibillion industry, and as a result some of the world’s leading firms submitted proposals.
The biggest project, worth $335 million, was awarded to BIG, a Dutch design and architecture firm. BIG will construct a multipurpose berm in the East River Park on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. The berm will function as a floodwall, public green space, and a natural filter.
“We are who we are because we’re the ultimate coastal city. We wouldn’t trade that in for anything in the world,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the Jacob Riis Houses Monday. “But it requires of us a new level of preparation and resiliency.”
The East River Park lies between the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive, a highway, and the East River. Superstorm Sandy knocked out electricity, water, and gas at nearby Jacob Riis Houses for nearly a week.
