Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency
Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) refers to a range of climate change adaptation strategies of coastal management to address impacts on the city in the wake of the extensive Hurricane Sandy flooding of 2012.[1]
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A more localized alternative to the New York Harbor Storm-Surge Barrier, it has some continuity with the centuries-long Lower Manhattan expansion trend and seeks to compensate for the historical loss of wetland buffer zones, and would be integrated into the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway.
History
After Sandy, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg differed on their preferred infrastructure responses, with Cuomo favoring a storm barrier to protect the entire estuary, and Bloomberg localized protection for Lower Manhattan inspired by Battery Park City. Several studies have been commissioned since, including the BIG U from Bjarke Ingels Group for a semi-circle of berms that would allow small-scale controlled floods,[2] in contrast with the more ambitious seawall proposals.[3] Their 2014 plan largely involved constructing a series of berms in Lower Manhattan, inland from the shoreline.[4][5][6] but has been deemed inadequate in parts and too costly to maintain.
Bloomberg's 2013 concept of "Seaport City"[9] has been replaced by the FiDi-Seaport plan,[10] as part of the wider LMCR initiative by the De Blasio administration. It updates the BIG U with more substantial land reclamation that could be funded and finished, avoiding the occasional temporary flooding of the earlier plan and its maintenance costs.[11][12] Initial plans focus on landfilling and building up East River Park.[13][14]
References
- "Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency". edc.nyc. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- "The BIG U". www.architectmagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- Barnard, Anne (2020-01-17). "The $119 Billion Sea Wall That Could Defend New York … or Not". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- Feuer, Alan (2014-10-25). "Building for the Next Big Storm". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
- "NYC: The BIG U". Rebuild by Design.
- "The BIG U". American Planning Association.
- Green, Jared (June 20, 2019). "Berms Aren't Enough: NYC Shifts Course on "Big U" Resilience Plan". THE DIRT.
- "Ripples of Resilience: Lower Manhattan's Diverse Waterfront Communities; Waterfront Alliance". December 3, 2020.
- Quirk, Vanessa (2013-08-02). "Bloomberg Moves Forward with Controversial Seaport City". ArchDaily. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- "The Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan". FiDi Seaport Climate. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- "BIG U APRIL 2019 UPDATE – Rebuild by Design". www.rebuildbydesign.org. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- Green, Jared (2019-06-20). "Berms Aren't Enough: NYC Shifts Course on "Big U" Resilience Plan". THE DIRT. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- Hanania, Joseph (2019-01-18). "To Save East River Park, the City Intends to Bury It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
- Kimmelman, Michael (2021-12-02). "What Does It Mean to Save a Neighborhood?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-04-12.