The East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project, for which H&H designed two of the three pedestrian bridges, recently won Best in Competition, the top honor at this year’s AIA New York Design Awards.
The project is the first completed section of a 10-mile-long flood protection system built around Lower Manhattan in response to Hurricane Sandy. H&H designed both the Delancey Street & E.10th Street Pedestrian Bridges for NYC’s Department of Design and Construction, alongside the AKRF/KSE JV team. The approaches were comprised of concrete cellular ramps which lead up to a 209-foot steel tied-arch bridge spanning the FDR Drive, reconnecting the neighborhood to the waterfront.
The bridges serve as an extension of the park into the community, functioning not only as a practical element but also as a symbolic landmark. This is what made H&H especially excited to design this portion of the project, as it provided an opportunity to think about infrastructure not only as serving a functional purpose but also as creating a meaningful marker within the community.
This project demonstrates how Architecture and Engineering, when working in harmony, can achieve excellence while creating lasting value for a community.
