Design
A Seawall That Proves Strong Infrastructure Can Be Pretty, Too
Heavy doesn’t have to mean ugly.
In the alternately dour and idealistic world of water infrastructure, there are some pretty clearly delineated Good Guys and Bad Guys. The Bad Guys are everywhere: gray concrete culverts, drainage pipes, and seawalls that use brute force to shove water out of sight and away from settlements and homes, often exacerbating flooding in places just past the barrier.
The Good Guys are a much rarer species. They exist as much in renderings (like the Dryline proposal to protect Lower Manhattan from floods) as they do in real life—attractive, park-like wetlands that use natural ecosystems to slow and filter water.