River Futures

LARP 7020-203 2026

The Hudson River Estuary is a 153-mile reach of the 315-mile Hudson River, flowing through the ancestral homelands of the Lenape and Munsee-Mohican people. The estuary, where seawater from the Atlantic meets the freshwater flowing from the upper river and its tributaries, extends from the Troy Dam near Albany to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan, NY, encompassing a watershed of roughly 13,000 square miles. Over the estuary’s 153 miles, the river’s elevation drops only five feet. At high tide, saltwater, or the “salt wedge,” can reach as far north as Poughkeepsie, and water levels are influenced all the way to the Troy Dam. This tidal influence causes the currents of the “river” to change direction four times a day.

Along the trail, different stages of young forest are visible, creating contrast between regeneration and established habitat.

Maeve Fogarty

Along the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, a network of prescribed burn areas, managed woodland patches, and adaptive trail systems creates a shifting mosaic of young forest habitat across the site. Primary trails and temporary spur paths provide access into active management zones, while select routes may periodically close to support regeneration, habitat protection, and changing successional conditions

Maeve Fogarty

Disturbance-based woodland management maintains young forest habitat through cyclical regeneration and structural diversity. Prescribed burning, coppicing, hedge laying, rotational patching, and variable patch sizing reset succession, control invasive species, and create dense shrub and sapling layers that provide critical wildlife habitat. Recurring disturbance produces a shifting mosaic of successional stages that supports biodiversity, improves forest resilience, and sustains the thick understory conditi

Maeve Fogarty

The studio engages the goals and framework of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve (HRNERR) restoration plans. Developed in collaboration with multiple stakeholders in the region, these documents serve as a foundational reference for the studio. Students examine and critique strategies outlined in the documents and propose spatial design approaches to weave habitat and human activity together, reframing how people directly engage with the estuary and their environs. Central to this inquiry is a critical understanding of “restoration,” as articulated in the 2018 Hudson River Comprehensive Restoration Plan:

“… we do not propose a return to some previous, unattainable condition. Rather, we offer a pathway forward that recognizes likely future conditions and contributes to a more productive natural system, vibrant economy, strengthened sense of community, and a safe, clean natural resource available for recreation, tourism and education.”

Haoyuan Huai

Haoyuan Huai

9 models in matrix serving as toolkits for habitat and infrastruture transformation

Haoyuan Huai

The studio rejects the premise that the Hudson River Estuary can be “restored” to a previous condition, but rather, explores the intersection of changing riverine habitats and urbanized, industrial, and infrastructural shorelines. Working in the mid-Hudson estuary, from Poughkeepsie to Beacon, the first phase of the studio investigates and spatializes four estuarine habitats and one upland habitat - submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), intertidal wetlands, shorelines, tributaries, and highlands. We hear from scientists, ecologists, and designers about estuary-wide efforts to restore and/or adapt these priority river habitats as the climate changes. In the second phase of the studio, students develop a site-scale design proposition that revives blue-green infrastructure and projects a vision for the future of an urbanized shoreline along the Hudson River. The studio does not simply “deploy” ongoing restoration strategies across different sites. Rather, we speculate an urban-ecological future that engages people with their environment and fosters ecosystems as infrastructure in the Hudson River Estuary.