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Coastal Resilience & Urban Waterfronts

Nature-Based Design For Urban Waterfront

CLIENTBattery Park City Authority|
LOCATIONSouth Battery Park, NYC|
YEAR 2024

This prominent Manhattan waterfront provides diverse habitats for a healthy ecosystem – and a new experience for the park’s visitors.

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New York’s South Battery or Wagner Park features a prominent Manhattan waterfront. The Pier A inlet was designed with future-proof flood-protection. We provided the nature-based design and concrete elements for Pier A inlet to support biodiversity within a flood protection infrastructure. (Image: The park’s waterfront ‘before’ with rock riprap.)

We created nature-inclusive cladding for the Pier A Inlet bulkhead, enhanced pier piles above and below the relieving platform, and integrated horizontal pier tiles, tide pools, planters, and veneer cladding across various walls. (Image: Construction ongoing – partial installation of ECOncrete elements completed, 2025)

Eco-engineering Collaboration

From design stage onwards we worked closely with AECOM, Siteworks, and Posillico to define ecological targets and integrate custom eco-engineered structural elements across the Pier A inlet.

Land–Water Interface Retrofit

Constructable concrete elements were applied to bulkhead cladding and pier piles above and below the relieving platform. ECOncrete concrete planters replaced rock riprap to create a continuous land–water transition supporting marine and terrestrial vegetation, while accounting for sea-level rise and future intertidal zones.

WEDG Certification Contribution

ECOncrete’s nature-inclusive design contributed to WEDG verification (total 125 points, above certification threshold).

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