ResilienCity Park is Hoboken’s largest park, providing recreation and public space while serving as landscape infrastructure that manages almost two million gallons of stormwater in a low lying, flood-prone city. The park transforms an asphalt covered, former industrial site into a vegetated public space filled with amenities for the Hoboken community. Through a robust engagement process, a balance of Nature, Culture, Athletics, and Play were identified as the top aspirations for a resiliency park in a growing neighborhood.
The park also serves a fundamental role in Hoboken’s resiliency strategy by integrating green infrastructure and innovative stormwater management measures to mitigate flooding and reduce sewer overflows to the Hudson River. Working with existing soils and on-site materials, the terrain was reformed to elevate a park cafe and community building out of the 100-year floodplain onto a raised terrace, while keeping industrial soils safely on-site under a landscape cap. Through innovative stormwater measures within an urban floodplain, this water infrastructure will form a foundation for a park that promotes both physical and social resilience.
The design achieved requirements of the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank for infrastructure financing and won a FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant of $10 million for construction. The park has been designed to meet the requirements of USGBC’s Sustainable SITES initiative, such as brownfield development, integrating native plant communities, reduction of irrigation, stormwater reuse, reduction of heat island, potential to integrate a solar array, reuse of materials, and providing social spaces, and is anticipated to achieve a Silver certification.
