Sparking Conversations on the Hudson Waterfront

Wendy presenting design concepts during the site tour.

Assemblage is excited to share our latest activity with the Hudson Valley Collaborative. We recently returned from another visit to the city of Hudson for Control and Yield, a forward-thinking panel discussion, hosted by Eco Toolshed. Eco Toolshed is both “library and infrastructure” dedicated to sharing good work happening in the City of Hudson and the broader Hudson Valley. The good work in this case, was a panel discussion around land acknowledgement and Indigenous people’s understanding of ownership. Alongside these critical conversations were presentations of two projects underway on the waterfront: The Henry Hudson Riverfront Park expansion and redesign and the Hudson Sloop Club’s Nack Estuary Education Center. 

Our attendance at Control and Yield was part of our ongoing work on the Riverfront Park in Hudson. During the panel discussion and the ensuing park tour, we facilitated conversation around climate change and the park’s future design. Once again, we introduced community members to the idea of sea level rise by marking the year 2100 sea level with pink tape stretching across the landscape at the location of projected sea level. With this simple yet  bold line, we helped others envision the future and the necessity of climate adaptive thinking for the waterfront. The evening's most poignant takeaway was shared by Scott Stevens, speaking on behalf of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a belief that takes the long view when planning for the future: “think and plan seven generations of [ourselves]”. 

In follow up to Control and Yield, the Hudson Valley Collaborative is presenting a selection of climate adaptive graphics designed to visualize the ways that sea level rise will impact the Hudson river waterfront. The work will be on display at Focus Gallery in Troy, hosted by  the Future of Small Cities Institute.

written by Lori Ball Horton for Assemblage Landscape Architecture