Governors Island Park and Public Space

New York, NY

Governors Island Park and Public Space

MKA provided civil site schematic design for 119 acres and full design and construction for 42 acres of this iconic park and public space that includes groves, hills, and playfields in the heart of New York Harbor. This work included civil engineering underpinnings, topography, and storm drainage design to realize the architectural vision of “transformation through topography”—a previously flat site reconfigured into unprecedented 360-degree views of the Statue of Liberty, downtown Manhattan, and Brooklyn. This feat required 500,000 yd³ of imported soil to create four new hills, one as tall as 70 feet. MKA developed detailed 3-D models of the complex topography that included the careful insertion of universally accessible paths to the top of the two tallest hills.