While rising sea levels have drawn the attention of the public in recent years, the impact of climate change on other infrastructure has been largely ignored. As the climate continues to warm, New York City is receiving 10-20% more annual precipitation than 100 years ago, and severe storm precipitation has increased by 70%. The city’s century-old infrastructure cannot accommodate this additional runoff and CSOs dump raw sewage into the nearest river during every storm while many parts of the city experience flood damage multiple times per year.

This project is centered around the concept of the water square - public architecture designed to flood during storms and slow the release of runoff into water management systems. It utilizes the existing Taystee Lab, a new construction struggling to find tenants, as a platform for education regarding New York City’s runoff problems. The front bay of the structure has been reworked into a pathway that showcases various systems of temporary water retention in a trade show format. The design of the path allows for the installations to function as they would in actual application while viewers interact with them, demonstrating how these strategies could be used to benefit current and future projects.