Reimagining the Waterfront: Manhattan's East River Esplanade

Reimagining the Waterfront: Manhattan's East River Esplanade features visionary redesign proposals for the East River Esplanade, a narrow strip of land between the FDR Drive and East River, between 60th and 125th Street.  Currently, the site offers a continuous promenade and bike lane with shoreline views, but it also suffers from neglect and decay as well as the challenge of the neighboring highway.  To inspire city residents to think boldly about the site’s potential, CIVITAS, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Upper East Side and East Harlem, sponsored an ideas competition in the fall of 2011, inviting architects, landscape architects, and city planners from around the world to submit creative and original proposals for the site.  Their submissions ranged from transforming the East Side into a system of canals to returning to the area to its original marshland.  The exhibition features the eight winning designs as well as photographs of the site through history and today.