Rockaway Dune Walk Signals Hurricane Sandy Recovery
Parts of New York are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy. But they’re coming back to life, stronger and better designed than before. Rockaway Beach is one such example. Situated on a peninsula that juts out from Queens, its boardwalk was destroyed by the storm. The first two phases of the redesign were unveiled this summer: a 1-mile section of the total 5 1?2-mile-long stretch.
Dubbed Rockaway Dune Walk, the 40-foot-wide pathway was commissioned by the
New York City Economic Development Corporation
and the
Department of Parks & Recreation
to
WXY Architecture + Urban Design
, which is familiar with the area since principal Claire Weisz designed the nearby Beach 30th Street pavilion before Sandy hit.
Taking cues from the storm for this project, the firm made benches out of wood reclaimed from the old boardwalk and mixed recycled colored glass into the aggregate. Best of all, thanks to Atlantic Ocean–blue pigment worked into sections of the precast concrete planks, an aerial view captures the word rockaway in proud block letters.
>>See more from the September 2015 issue of
Interior Design