Project of the Year Finalist and Best Project Sports/Entertainment: Bergen County Rowing Center at Riverside County Park
The project team for the new Bergen County Row Center, set along the Passaic River in North Arlington, N.J., knew the boathouse needed to be rugged. Built on a floodplain in Riverside County Park, the facility had to be able to withstand potentially significant storm surge.
“When we started the project, there was a shed out there that had Sharpie marks on an overhead door that showed the flood elevation when [Superstorm] Sandy rolled through,” recalls Michael Nelson, project manager and associate principal at Clarke Caton Hintz, which designed the new facility. “They had marked another couple of storms that rolled through and those were chest high when you’re standing in front of the door. It was kind of jarring to stand there and think this entire place was underwater.”