Hudson River is a 315-mile river between New York and Jersey City. For many years, it separates the two cities apart. Eventually, the river drains into the Atlantic Ocean. Due to the overdevelopment of New York City, Hudson River is now contaminated with a mixture of New York’s water sources. During the two-hour field trip, I kept asking myself one question: how do we live with water?
This observation was composed at 11:48 a.m. The weather was accurately 49 °F. It was a windy day, but not necessarily cold. The air was moist on the boat. Water quality was not acceptable. Water surface under the sunlight was dark green and muddy. There were some oil stains floating on the water.
Hudson River is where the city lets out all wastes and sewage. The New York City’s Wastewater Treatment System is located on the Hudson River to eliminate the sewage in the river. Nonetheless this is far from enough. One thing our faculty speaker constantly mentioned was the Hurricane “Sandy” back in 2012. It was the 2nd most-costliest hurricane in the entire American history. Hudson River witnessed everything. Due to the natural geography, storms like Sandy easily allows water into the harbor and the coastlines. The city was highly damaged.
Hurricane Sandy allows us to see the future. There is no doubt that sea level is going to increase dramatically in 40 years. One of our faculty speaker mentioned that the sea level will increase 11 – 21 inches before 2050 and about 60 inches before the end of 21st century. That is a lot of water. As designers and artists, what we should do now is not to fight the nature. Humans’ve done fighting for centuries, but we spent too much for nothing. We should live with water. There must be a balance point between human beings and the nature and we have to find that balance point. How do we live in New York in 2050? Do we rise our city or we drain the water from Hudson River? I do not know, but we have think from this perspective from now on.
