Reimagining Rockaway

Queens, New York | 2013 | Competition

What if we had an eraser to remove the monolithic housing development along the coast of Rockaway? What if we could redistribute the population to increase the density at the center of the peninsula and decrease it at the periphery that is subject to ever more frequent flooding? What if we allowed water to flow into the community, instead of building a barrier to block the rising tides? We could create a public wetland, that accepts the influx of water, and could be used for both recreation and education. The wetlands could then be carried into the housing areas and act as communal green space. Building on the ideas generated by Symbiopia, this project proposes the incremental development of Rockaway where small individual interventions multiply to have a powerful cumulative effect. Starting with infilling the existing housing stock, located in the center of the peninsula, and culminating in the redevelopment of existing singular use low-rise structures into mixed-use buildings, that support residential and commercial uses alongside energy harvesting, fresh food production, and waste treatment in self-sustaining structures, Rockaway could become a model for new urban development in this era of climate change.