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The new Resiliency Park, designed by OLIN, will be the largest public park in the city of Hoboken.

It takes only an inch or so of rain for Hoboken to flood, sending outfall to the Hudson River. The city is therefore investing in citywide resiliency infrastructure, including the new park, which is designed to hold one million gallons of rainwater in detention tanks below ground. Aboveground, the park will provide a new community destination. Our park pavilion anchors the terrace at the park’s highest point, offering panoramic views of the neighborhood and Palisades Park beyond.

Designed as an armature for park life, an oversized canopy shelters two small volumes below, creating a protected outdoor zone that exceeds the area of the conditioned interior. Amenities including swings and an outdoor movie screen are incorporated into and hung from the canopy. The two volumes – a community room and a library annex / café – together create a portal into the park viewed from the street. Native plants will climb up the steel columns, creating leaf canopies, as if strange trees had invaded the pavilion.

Structural concrete walls serve as the finish material on the inside, with the goals of minimizing layered construction systems and providing flood-proof durability. The canopy was developed to create a diffuse shading device, simultaneously providing both shade and luminosity by virtue of its perforated, corrugated stainless steel profile.

Amenities such as swings and an outdoor movie screen are hung from the canopy, which draws the park in as much as it extends indoor functions outward.

Client: OLIN / City of Hoboken
Location: Hoboken, NJ
Status: Under construction (completion in 2024)
Dates: 2017 – 2024
Sq Footage: 10,000sf
Program: Public park pavilion: community room, library annex / cafe, outdoor cinema, restrooms and shaded outdoor space
Environmental: Flood resiliency measures

Design Team: Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang | Thomas Heltzel | David Mora, Matthew Sikora, Michelle Lin, Sarah Bernard, Joric Barber

Collaborators: Project Lead: E&LP | Landscape/Civil Engineer: OLIN | Structural Engineer: Silman | MEP Engineer: OLA Consulting Engineers | Lighting Designer: Lumen Architecture, PLLC