Hudson RiverNet
News from the Hudson River Estuary Program
The Climate-adaptive Design (CAD) project links Cornell University students in landscape architecture with flood-risk Hudson riverfront communities to explore design concepts that envision climate-resilient and connected waterfronts. Last week during an open house in Kingston, New York, eight teams of students presented their inspirational concepts for the East Strand waterfront area of the city.
 The four-month design process began with students studying the community’s cultural history, its watershed and estuarine setting, and New York State climate change projections. Students visited local sites and neighborhoods, attended workshops, and interviewed community stakeholders, while investigating options for waterfront reinforcement and adaptation, and relocation of infrastructure. PhD students from Cornell Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering provided guidance during the design process. The final designs provided innovative concepts to address neighborhood access to the river, flooding and sea-level rise.
The Climate-adaptive Design project is a research partnership with DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program, Cornell Landscape Architecture and Cornell Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering. The CAD program was piloted in 2015 in the Village of Catskill and since then has worked with the City of Hudson, and the Village of Piermont. This is the third studio in Kingston, each of which has focused on a different area of the Rondout waterfront. |
