Governors Island Blog

Striving to be greener may seem like overkill for a new green oasis with 1,300 new trees, but GIPEC and the  West 8 Team are incorporating a broad range of sustainable design features into the Park and Public Space Master Plan. Our focus on sustainability makes more sense if you remember that parks are wholly man-made environments. How they are designed and constructed can have a significant impact on the natural environment.  Likewise, the ability of a park to thrive for future generations depends on sound planning and design that anticipates the impact of the natural environment on the park itself. This becomes even more important and more challenging in the face of a warming planet and rising sea levels.

Some of the key strategies the designers are using to minimize the park’s impact, offset impacts elsewhere, and respond to a warming planet are:

• Focus on site specific conditions and design accordingly
• Focus on native plantings as the backbone of the plant and tree selection, as well as locally adapted species that are expected to thrive as temperature ranges change
• Reuse as much material as possible from demolition of the Island’s obsolete parking lots and non-historic buildings.
• Reuse clean-fill from other local projects to build up parts of the Island and elevate the roots of new trees out of the projected 100-year flood zone.
• Replace impervious asphalt with plantings wherever possible to reduce storm water run-off and decrease urban heat island effect
• Manage storm water on site to minimize run-off into the Harbor and City sewers

Below is an illustration of the Island’s current topography. The orange line shows the level to which a 1-in-100-year flood could rise in the year 2100, if global warming causes a rise in sea level of up to two feet.

And here is an illustration of one of the West 8 Team’s ideas for planning the future park- lifting the root zone of new trees above proejcted flood levels.

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