Photo by: Darcstudio
New York City mandates private stormwater collection in most new developments. That almost always means underground reservoirs.
Brooklyn’s Bergen project is an exception.
The residential development currently under construction features two waterfalls and a reflection pond that bring the process of controlling runoff to the surface, exposing bare the effects of climate change. But rather than serve as an ominous reminder of the consequences of intensifying weather, the designers intend for the project’s landscape to demonstrate a way to adapt.
“Why is the response to dealing with this new reality something that always lives in the basement or underground?” asks Jordan Rogove, partner and cofounder of DXA Studio, who did the master planning on the project. “It’s just a new reality and we should embrace it and, more importantly, provide people an opportunity to experience it in a really beautiful way.”
The condominium project, designed by Frida Escobedo, presented Rogove and landscape designer Patrick Cullina a considerable engineering challenge: 45,000 square feet of surface area collecting rainwater in Brooklyn, “which arguably has the most outdated sort of stormwater conveyance system in the city,” Rogove says.