In April, the Coney Island Beautification Project and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium finished a wide-reaching and inclusive community planning process on how to make the Coney Island neighborhood more resilient to climate change. Hundreds of residents spent Saturdays working with the two organizations and Cornell University students to develop ideas and strategies to change the neighborhood over the coming decades.
Waterfront Alliance, along with Coney Island Beautification Project, NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and NYC Parks are pleased to announce their own effort focused along the Coney Island Creek and building off the tremendous existing community work.
Two firms, known for their nature-based solutions to climate challenges and deep expertise in working across New York City neighborhoods, will join the effort to lead a technical planning study of the creek. Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners PLLC will lead the study, supported by global engineering firm WSP. Both firms bring a strong reputation for building both public and NYC agency consensus around forward-thinking resilient design, and both firms have experience with Waterfront Alliance’s WEDG® (Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines) program, the national standard for waterfront development. The firms responded to a Request for Proposals released by Waterfront Alliance in April 2025. A third firm, SCAPE Landscape Architecture, will provide additional advisory support to Waterfront Alliance.
“Starr Whitehouse is honored to collaborate with Waterfront Alliance to realize the Coney Island Creek community’s desire for a nature-infused, accessible shoreline design that protects, sustains, and greens this vulnerable waterfront community,” said Starr Whitehouse Principal Laura Starr. “This project will be a model for how communities can advocate for nature-based, neighborhood-enhancing solutions.”
This project will build on a legacy of planning initiatives focused on Coney Island Creek dating to a landmark NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) study in 2016 alongside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Harbors and Tributaries Study (HATS), an NYCEDC capital project upstream on the creek, and the previous community engagement effort. Through this project, Waterfront Alliance and its partners seek to:
- Bring clarity: Assessing all previous studies to determine what has been considered to-date for all stakeholders.
- Identify actions: Scoping further studies and design approaches to make progress on critical resilience and ecological goals for the community.
- Integrate perspectives: Finding common ground between community visions for Coney Island Creek and the relevant government agencies.
- Influence HATS: Assessing the feasibility of hybrid and nature-based flood reduction solutions on the creek to identify alternatives to the sea walls and levees proposed by the Army Corps.
Community engagement will be led by project partner Coney Island Beautification Project and will consist of public presentations, a community advisory committee, and other opportunities to add to previous community-led discussions. The project will commence in August 2026 and release a final report in Fall 2027.
