The Design Trust has been unlocking the potential of NYC’s public space since 1995. As we approach the end of our anniversary year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the past thirty and envision beyond the next, as we launch our 12th open call for project ideas: The Water RFP. Through a mini-series of three retrospective blog posts, we are looking back at the evolution of the Design Trust, remembering breakthrough projects that have redefined how we think about shared urban environments, and how they can inform projects centering equity and water.Our final installment of the series takes inspiration from "creative systems" design projects – from the Design Trust and other major city organizations – to envision equitable and resilient futures for NYC.
“We’re at a critical moment, when lots of things are either going to have to be rebuilt or rethought in order to survive.” – Ted Berger
As we continue to face increasingly intense storms, flooding, and heat waves, it is becoming impossible to ignore that we now live in a climate New York City’s infrastructure was not designed to handle.
We’re all witnessing the effects in real time–it was just months ago that our subway stations and basements flooded from torrential summer rainfall–but extreme weather patterns do not impact us equally.
Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath have shown how unequally vulnerable New Yorkers are to flood exposure, with lower-income and older populations disproportionately facing the greatest danger.
And, according to Cool It! NYC, the neighborhoods at highest risk of heat-related injury or death—Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York, Brownsville, East Flatbush, Jamaica, and the South Bronx—also have the least access to cooling infrastructure and green space.
As the frequency and intensity of climate catastrophes increase, urban design for disaster preparedness must confront these disparities. On top of basic civil engineering, we need strategies that advance spatial equity.
30 Years of Sustainability
Over the past three decades, the Design Trust has prioritized sustainability in our work, towards building equitable public space futures for NYC:
In 2006, we published Sustainable New York City, a collection of research and recommendations around the “protection of water and land; conservation of energy, improvement of air quality, and adaptation to and mitigation of climate change; and efficient use of materials.”
The High Performance Guidelines series (1998–2011) directly informed PlaNYC in 2007, a Bloomberg administration plan for the resiliency and liveability of New York City. PlaNYC has since evolved over the years and was most recently updated in 2024.
Five Borough Farm (2009–2015) demonstrated how New York City’s urban farms and gardens have positive social, health, economic and ecological outcomes, paving the way for the development of the Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture. Among many things, this project has notably shown how gardeners are capturing and reusing rainwater, reducing strain on our overwhelmed infrastructure.
The 2016–2019 project, Future Culture: Connecting Staten Island's Waterfront, expands definitions of sustainability beyond the natural environment to include the preservation and supported development of local culture. This project resulted in a cultural plan of design, planning, and policy recommendations towards equitable development in one of Staten Island’s waterfront neighborhoods.
Most recently, the Design Trust was involved in the first Cloudburst Hub pilot project in Corona, Queens, in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Protection. Cloudburst Hubs feature an underground network of stormwater management tools working together to increase resiliency during intense rainstorms. The project has completed its design development phase, with construction expected to begin next year.
Requesting Water Solutions
The Water RFP seeks innovative strategies to ease water-related pressures exerted on New York City. While the call feels especially urgent right now, creative water management design isn’t new. The Landscape and Infrastructure publications of the High Performance Guidelines series provide some generations-old examples:
In the 19th century, Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood would overflow with sewage during heavy rains. Frederick Law Olmsted, having just designed Prospect Park, worked with city officials to design a land based system that could absorb, store, filter, and release stormwater and sewage slowly while serving as a public park, known as the Back Bay Fens.
"Olmsted considered the constructed, park-like landscape of the Fens as a piece of infrastructure—a basic component of the urban fabric, a component that makes the city work." – Landscape historian Kathy Poole
Central Park also contains a sophisticated system of reservoirs, lakes, and subsurface infrastructure that controls and treats massive volumes of stormwater runoff. Since the 1870s, the park has been nicknamed the city’s “lung” and “breathing place” for its vital role in cleaning the city’s air and managing its water.
Water as Design Partner
Envisioning mitigation strategies for increasingly intense weather patterns isn't solely about engineering. It can also be about reimagining our relationship with water itself.
What would change if common design strategies recognized water not as a resource to exploit or a threat to contain, but as a partner in creating healthier, more resilient ecosystems?
Through their designing with water guidelines, firms such as ARUP, Henning Larsen and Ramboll have researched the many ways respecting water as a stakeholder in the design process improves our lives. They report that designing with water positively impacts:
Human health and wellbeing, by improving overall living environments, increasing connectivity, absorbing air pollutants, improving microclimates, and providing opportunities for recreation, exercise, and education.
Habitat and biodiversity, by creating new habitats within green infrastructure networks, enabling natural treatment of water and wastewater, improving water quality, and supporting ecosystem restoration.
Economic activity, delivering direct returns through infrastructure investment and new technologies, while reducing flood risk, increasing property values, and attracting investment.
Around the boroughs, creative projects are already manifesting visions of equitable water futures for NYC.
The Highway Overpass Landscape Detention System (HOLD) collects and filters stormwater from highway downspouts using planted, modular bio-swales that absorb, retain, and filter pollutants like oil, heavy metals, and grease.
The RETI Center’s BlueBlock Floating Gardens, inspired by lily pads and built entirely from salvaged materials, float on recycled corks and are designed as easily assembled kits that actively support life at every level.
Staten Island's Bluebelt program preserves natural drainage corridors, supporting ecologically rich and cost-effective systems that naturally handle runoff while conveying, storing, and filtering stormwater.
To envision and rebuild a resilient city for all New Yorkers, environmental justice and climate resilience must be seen as interconnected goals. We’re excited to explore this and more possibilities through the Water RFP.
“The way to avoid danger is to... make sure that when we change a place, the change agreed upon nurtures our growth as capable and responsible people while also protecting the natural environment and developing jobs and homes enough for all.” – Tony Hiss, The Experience of Place, 1991