The 'River Ring' aiming to change behaviour

Bjarke Ingels Group and James Corner Field Operations have created a River Street Waterfront Masterplan for Two Trees Management, deconstructing and re-naturalising the built Brooklyn shoreline, expanding the water’s edge into the city while creating a new beach.

The 118,637 square-metre design won a 2021 AIA NY Citation Award in Urban Planning, and completes the continuous public waterfront stretching from Bushwick Inlet Park to Domino Park, filling the significant missing link in the public route from Williamsburg to Greenpoint.

The Rivers Street Waterfront Plan for Brooklyn.

BIG say River Ring, “seeks to enhance connectivity of the public waterfront, restore natural habitats, elevate the standard for urban waterfront resiliency, and transform the way New Yorkers interact with the East River.”

Located where Metropolitan Avenue ends at the East River, the masterplan extends the connection from the city grid towards the water, encouraging people to visit the ecological park.

The masterplan includes deconstructing and re-naturalising the built Brooklyn shoreline, expanding the water’s edge into the city while creating a new beach.

Metropolitan Avenue is split into two diagonal pathways that connect to the waterfront promenade, creating a circular path that frames the protected cove, offering 360-degree panoramic views of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The circular esplanade extends into the river, connecting a series of nature trails, an amphitheatre, boating cove, sandy beach and children’s play area.

The expanded and enhanced shoreline features six acres of new park space, including three acres of protected water access: an outdoor tidal classroom, tidal pools, picnic and hammock grove, and nature walk.

The 118,637 square-metre design won a 2021 AIA NY Citation Award in Urban Planning.

Habitat restoration addresses the East River’s biodiversity shortcomings and encourages the return of wildlife. A circular breakwater structure jutting into the river is surrounded by salt marshes and tidal flats to soak up storm surges.

The area of the residential towers is minimised at ground level, and oriented to maximise the Metropolitan Avenue view corridor. “Blending the towers with the landscape softens the relationship between building and park,” say BIG, “forming a gateway that welcomes the community to the water.”

The plan provides the significant missing link in the public route from Williamsburg to Greenpoint.

James Corner Field Operations drew inspiration from Jamaica Bay, which embraces the river rather than building walls that accelerate storm surge and push it to adjacent waterfronts. The waterfront infrastructure and open space will feature breakwaters, marshes, wetlands and a tidal basin that, “will dissipate wave action from storm surges to increase resilience and create calmer waters for safe in-water recreation.”

Daniel Sundlin, partner at BIG, sees River Ring as inviting New Yorkers to, “take back and enjoy the river as a social and ecological public amenity surrounded by a necklace of recreation, educational and commercial programs, we envision the historic piers to be renewed and teeming with life.”