Cooper Robertson and our key personnel have been working on the Red Hook waterfront for over a decade.
Partner Bill Kenworthey, AIA, as Urban Designer for the Department of City Planning Brooklyn office, advised on design issues for IKEA Red Hook and Gowanus Canal projects, as well as other Brooklyn waterfront issues.
In 2003, Cooper Robertson worked on an alternative futures study for the reuse and redevelopment of Red Hook Container Terminal Piers 6-12 in collaboration with HR&A Advisors for NYCEDC and PANYNJ. The result was a concept plan that proposed a mix of uses on the piers including a cruise ship terminal, housing, and a continuation of selected maritime and industrial uses.
In 2013 following Superstorm Sandy, Cooper Robertson was responsible for coordinating the 10-firm consultant team of more than 40 professionals for New York City's Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency championed by the Mayor's Office, guiding the application of key initiatives for the five community areas most impacted by Sandy, including Red Hook.
For the State-organized initiative New York Rising, as part of a team led by HR&A Advisors, Cooper Robertson coordinated public outreach and developed illustrative concepts and mapping for community plans in Red Hook in the wake of Sandy. Building-level interventions recommended include elevating buildings, elevating mechanicals, wet floodproofing, and dry floodproofing.
As finalists in HUD's Rebuild By Design competition, Cooper Robertson led the design side of a partnership with HR&A Advisors. Our mission was to strengthen the vitality and resilient characteristics of mixed-use and commercial corridors in areas threatened by coastal flooding in the wake of storms like Hurricane Sandy, under the mantra that Resilient Businesses Make Strong Communities. Our team worked in three neighborhoods, including Red Hook, and engaged each community on multiple levels and covered both public and private interests to develop our design approaches. As a result of this engagement and process, our design solutions varied in each of the three communities, in Red Hook, we focused working waterfront industries, including the proposal of a "Maker's District" along the Gowanus Canal and solutions for protecting the Van Brunt Street retail district and NYCHA public housing community.
Today, as part of a team led by Dewberry, Cooper Robertson continues to work on the Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection System.
