Architect Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and landscape architect Scape have announced plans to redevelop a former industrial site on an island in the city of Norwalk, southeast Connecticut.
A coal-fired plant, which was decommissioned in 2012, occupies a site on Manresa Island –actually a 125-acre peninsula in the sound between Connecticut and Long Island, New York.
The plan is to turn Manresa into a park, with educational and recreational areas centred around water. This will allow the public to access the area for the first time in 75 years.
Scape will handle the masterplan for the park and BIG will design the transformation of the power plant, with its boiler building, turbine hall, offices and 350ft smokestack, into a multi-use public building.
Kate Orff, the founder of Scape, commented: “It’s just incredible that this private industrial parcel – which has pockets of rocky coastline, thriving wetlands, sandy beaches, and shady woodlands – is going to be healed and made public for all to enjoy.”
After the plant closed down, Manresa underwent a resurgence of nature, with a birch forest, osprey nests and wetland ecosystems taking over coal ash deposits. Scape plans to add a number of “living” shorelines and a tree canopy to reduce overheating and flooding. A beach will offer views of Long Island Sound and New York City.
Bjarke Ingels, BIG’s founder, said: “Manresa Island is set to become a much-needed foothold for the public along the otherwise rather privatised Connecticut coastline. With our vision for the power plant, we seek to rediscover and reanimate the majestic spaces hidden within the bones of the decommissioned piece of infrastructure. Boilers, silos, and turbine halls are postindustrial cathedrals awaiting exploration and reinterpretation.”
The project is being spearheaded by non-profit organisation Manresa Island Corp and will open in phases, the first of which is due in 2030.
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