Architect wins award for proposal to turn Columbia Point into climate-resilient island with power-generating canal

Paul Lukez Architecture of Somerville reports it's won an award at the annual World Architecture Festival in Berlin for its Hydroelectric Canal that would run from Carson Beach to Savin Hill Cove along Morrissey Boulevard as part of a complete re-do of Columbia Point to make it better able to withstand rising seas.

The WAFX Prize is meant for projects that could solve problems over the next 10 years. Although Lukez first showed off the idea in a 2015 climate-change competition sponsored in part by the city, the city has taken no steps to put the plan into action.

The firm's proposal would use tidal flows to generate electricity. The design also calls for a complete re-do of the point's existing apartments, schools and other facilities:

Our innovative design reconnects and reuses fresh and marine water systems through restored fringing salt marshes, shellfish beds (including oyster reefs), tidal flats and pools, and eel-grass beds. Each of these natural habitats is integrated with human ones (e.g. Living Building Quads), providing comprehensive human and ecological services: primary production, food production, fish and shellfish habitat provision, biogeochemical cycling of nutrients, carbon sequestration, sediment trapping, wave attenuation, shoreline stabilization, water quality improvement, etc. ...

The new Morrissey Channel would capture rising sea levels and tidal changes and embrace the ebb and flow of natural water currents to generate hydroelectric energy through advanced turbine technologies, which would power communities and build lively public spaces. This ecologically sustainable urban model would assume a new form of resilient urbanism that generates an amenity-rich landscape, restored ecology, and an economically viable, self-sustaining community.