A Vision of New York City: 2080 AD

Most exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art in New York focus on the achievements contemporary artists. But a new exhibit takes an intriguing look into New York City's future. The exhibit "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront" examines how the city will respond to the predicted rise in sea levels over the next seventy years. The images of the hypothetical New York of 2080 look like an abandoned city, with nature reclaiming the land once inhabited by human beings, but the project is actually the result of the combined efforts of several landscape design and architecture companies. Concept sketches show a dramatically altered New York City waterfront, with swamp and wetlands reclaiming portions of Manhattan. The exhibit demonstrates how green technology can integrate with urban environments, and New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff lauds the project as "the most coherent model we have for a sustainable city in the current century." So will New York City look like in 2080?

The New York City of the future will utilize several new green technologies to protect and renovate the city in a changing world. Some of the proposals provide practical solutions to serious problems. One proposal suggest that in the New York of the future streets of will not be made of asphalt or concrete, but from a porous material designed to absorb and collect rain water. Other ideas include the construction of a bio-fuel plant in Bayonne, New Jersey, and an artificial reef system off the coast of New York harbor. Some concepts presented in the exhibit seem a little more preposterous. A couple of the more farfetched plans include converting the Gowanus Canal into an oyster farm, and off-shore housing developments built on artificial islands. Most of the proposal would greatly alter the landscape, and the proposed New York of 2080 looks radically different from the New York of the 20th century. But the exhibition on display at the Museum of Modern Art effectively demonstrates the challenges the city faces and how it will have to change during the next century.

Global warming and rising sea levels will not only have a dramatic affect on New York's environment, but its economy as well. Melting ice caps may open a trans-arctic shipping passage by the middle of the twenty-first century, seriously jeopardizing New York City's position as an international shipping capital. In order to thrive in the twenty-first century, New York will have to re-envision itself in order to adapt to a changing world. The projects and design elements presented in the exhibit provide interesting solutions to the problems facing many modern cities, but the draw of the 'Rising Currents' exhibit is the compelling vision of the future that it offers. Museums strive to preserve our cultural heritage for future generations, but in this instance a museum has taken a look in to the future to inform and educate the public about the impact of climate change and the importance of developing green technology.

Works Cited
Ouroussoff, Nicolai. "Imagining a More Watery New York." New York Times. March 26, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/arts/design/26rising.html