{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationJersey City, New Jersey, United States
ClientJersey City Redevelopment Agency, Perkins Eastman (Team Lead)
Size100 acres

Bounded by the scenic Hudson to the east, Jersey City is lined with high-rise towers and waterfront parks offering views of Manhattan. To the west, the often-overlooked Hackensack features wetlands, industry, and degraded post-industrial sites. The Bayfront Redevelopment Master Plan aims to transform a formerly contaminated 100-acre site on the Hackensack River into a model of sustainable and equitable development. Upon completion, Bayfront will feature 8,000 residential units, 35% of which will be affordable, 340,000 square feet of commercial space, an intermodal transportation hub with light-rail and water-taxi service, 19 acres of public open space, and a publicly accessible waterfront. This project is set to be the largest mixed-income development in the Tri-State Area.

The interdisciplinary team led by Perkins Eastman, including SWA and Moffat & Nichol, aimed to ensure the master plan benefits not only future residents but also catalyzes the economic revitalization of Jersey City’s underserved west side, reconnecting diverse neighborhoods to the Hackensack Riverfront. The planning process involved extensive engagement with community groups, including the Bayfront Advisory Committee, and coordination with multiple city and state agencies.

The centerpiece is a half-mile waterfront park with two primary nodes, piers, docks for maritime activity, and newly created marshlands to absorb rising tides, improve water quality, and provide habitat. Two linear parks, built atop engineered caps isolating contaminated soil, connect upland neighborhoods to the riverfront. Central Park serves as the main access corridor, featuring a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Route 440, protected bikeways, trails, and recreational areas. Promenade Park offers more passive programming for the predominantly residential district. Both parks provide continuous green spaces while adhering to soil depth and loading limitations to protect the underlying cap system.

Related Projects

North Bund Riverside

North Bund Riverside Park, located on a prominent 2.1 km waterfront along Shanghai’s Huangpu River, is the first project of its kind in Shanghai to address contiguous waterfront open space. The goal of the associated international competition was to find innovative solutions to transform a post-industrial waterfront with historic elements into a viable active ...

Nantong Waterfront

A prominent riverfront city in Jiangsu Province, Nantong has long been shaped by its proximity to the Yangtze River, Hao River, Tonglv Canal, and Rengang River. The establishment of Nantong Port in 1904 and subsequent wharf construction drove decades of industrial growth, but as shipping operations shifted downstream to deeper waters, older docks in this area ...

Rio 2016 Olympic Park Competition

SWA was awarded 2nd place in the 2016 Olympic Park Competition in Rio de Janeiro for their master plan and landscape architecture proposal. The Olympics will be located on a 118-hectare site in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca. The underlying concept of ‘Embrace’ weaves through the design in a grand planning gesture, which both defines the Olympic Games and...

Shunde Guipan River Waterfront

SWA participated in a competition reimagining 19-kilometers of the Guipan River waterfront in Shunde, China. While the Pearl River Delta is one of the fastest growing regions of Southern China, one of the many casualties of this growth was the delta itself. Presently, Shunde has a growing flooding problem enhanced by channelizing, condensing, and containing th...

San Pedro Waterfront Connectivity Plan

Spanning over 460 acres and 8 linear miles of waterfront, the Port of Los Angeles is among the most important pieces of infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere—the largest container port in the U.S., a linchpin for global logistics, and an industrial hub critical to San Pedro and L.A. County at large.

Today, the Port is imagining a more connective, acc...

Changsha Baxizhou Island

Over many decades, public agencies in China have sought to solve growing flooding issues in a defensive way: fortifying and hardening river edges, raising levee heights, and ultimately separating the people from historical connections to the water. With an understanding of river flow processes and volumes and of wetland and native forest ecology, this separati...

SIPG Harbor City Parks

This new riverfront development is located on the Yangtze River in the Baoshan District of Shanghai. This area boasts some of the highest shipping activity in the world. However, in recent years this single-function industrial zone has given way, allowing for waterfront parks to develop. Within this historically layered water front the Baoshan Park and Open Sp...

Nantong Waterfront

A prominent riverfront city in Jiangsu Province, Nantong has long been shaped by its proximity to the Yangtze River, Hao River, Tonglv Canal, and Rengang River. The establishment of Nantong Port in 1904 and subsequent wharf construction drove decades of industrial growth, but as shipping operations shifted downstream to deeper waters, older docks in this area ...