2010
Studio: Advanced IV | Marc Tsurmaki, LTL Architects
Brief: Redesign existing Liberty Island museum with consideration for rising water levels.

Situated at the juncture between two environmental systems, Liberty Island began its existence as a low hillock in the estuarine terrain that now comprises the eastern edge of Jersey City. Today the outlines of the island are threatened by large scale shifts in regional and global hydrology. According to the NYC Panel On Climate Change Risk report, rapid ice melt scenarios currently predict up to 55” of sea level rise in the next 70 years, a base line that will result in storm surge events of up to 30’ for major coastal storms. The architectural intervention–conceived simultaneously as an architectural, infrastructural and landscape condition–renders Liberty Island more resilient to such climate events while accommodating access and continued touristic inhabitation of the site.

Unravel appropriates the infrastructural systems of geotubes and gabion walls for architectural use and creates a calm, wetland north of Liberty Island that would connect to the proposed Liberty State Park. Through the use of jetties and artificial islands NY harbors currents are controlled, encouraging higher speeds and the self-dredging that accompanies them in the shipping channels and lower speeds in the wetlands.