Earlier this month, five multidisciplinary urban and architectural design firms chosen by the MoMA presented their visions for the future of New York City’s waterfront in the face of global warming –- in particular the rising sea levels and torrential storms.

Organized by the museum’s Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, Barry Bergdoll, the teams used P.S.1, MoMA’s innovative young affiliate, as an incubator to develop infrastructures that will adjust the metropolitan’s coastlines and urban structures to the consequences of climate change. With a specific area assigned to each team -– from the bottom tip of Manhattan to parts of Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey — all came up with solutions to accommodate rather than ignore the process.

The Liberty State Park area, with 68% of its land submerged, was envisioned as a water park with nature viewing platforms and education centers, as well as a research hub for urban coastal adaptation and experimentation (photo above), while the downtown core would be suspended over Venice-like canals to absorb high-tide waters. But our personal favorite is the firm Skape’s plan to fill, or rather refill, Red Hook’s polluted Buttermilk Channel with oysters – and reestablish an industry, oyster farming, that was thriving in the area 300 years ago. Not only would these little marine habitants feed off the water’s toxins, but their eggs would float into nests settled at the entrance of the Upper Bay to harden as they grow into porous walls to protect the area from high tides. And no, they would not be edible any time soon.

These designs, results of an eight week in-residence collaborative workshop at P.S.1, will be exposed in the MoMA’s exhibit, “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfont” opening on March 23rd. For more info check out the MoMa website.

(photo courtesy Architecture Research Office)

-Chloe Roubert