This project reconstructs the wetland corridors lost to a previous generation of urban expansion. The new zones of green connectivity act as flood management and water filtration zones. The project crosses city boundaries, involving local and regional governments. To address different regulatory frameworks, it is structured as a toolkit of possible interventions. Each governing body can work within the kit of parts to implement the framework plan within existing policies. The water design aims to slow, soak, and spread urban runoff through landscape systems. It does so through retrofits to the existing urban fabric such as permeable paving and lakeshore stabilization. 

The jury commended the project’s approach to a common problem: the loss of coastal permeability. Working here with a freshwater site, the project’s group of collaborators has developed a highly transferable approach. The project is seen more as common-sense additions to existing patterns of development. For example, its suburban areas remain suburban but do more to treat water and foster habitats than development as usual. As such, the project trades radicality for applicability, generating a toolkit of possibilities that could be implemented quickly with real, local impact.