28 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 multiple urban layers into conversation: the park manages the hydrology of the surrounding blocks, provides a safe egress route during emergencies, and creates a new civic gathering space. This pilot serves a critical economic function. In a low-demand market, no investor wants to be the first to build in a flood zone. By using public funds to build a pilot that handles the water and creates a beautiful amenity, the public sector absorbs the risk. The pilot creates a “safe zone”—both hydrologically and financially—where private investment can eventually follow. It sends a signal flare to the market: “This problem is solvable.” West River Crossing: The Urban Pilot Sometimes, the obstacle isn’t flood risk, but property rights and the lingering fear of eminent domain. This was the challenge at the West River Crossing in New Haven. The vision for this site was ambitious: to transform a fragmented industrial waterfront into a vibrant public district with a waterfront park, wateroriented restaurants, and new housing. The challenge was that the waterfront had a fragmented ownership pattern and contained many polluted sites. One active industrial user, Bilco Hatch, had just moved its manufacturing to the Midwest, but hoped to keep their headquarters local where they had been a citizen for many decades. The design solution required a radical realignment of a street to create parcels and an organization that could unlock the waterfront and allow for development. The plan called for a new street that would cut a channel across multiple West Haven
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