Flood-prone Hoboken, New Jersey, unveils a park that doubles as a stormwater storage facility for its residents
Nestled just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, Hoboken, New Jersey, is a small city rich in history—home to the first organized baseball game in 1846, one of the nation’s earliest breweries, and the birthplace of the Oreo cookie in 1912. But for locals, it’s also a city that has come to be known for something less celebratory: flooding.
“Everything floods up here,” Maren Schmitt, a local mother of two, said, laughing nervously as she watched her boys climb on a playground. Hoboken’s geography, mostly located on a floodplain, means the city is especially vulnerable to the kind of heavy rainstorms that come with climate change. The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when the city saw 500 million gallons of stormwater surge through its streets, is still fresh in many minds.
But after more than a decade of working to prepare for the next big storm, Hoboken has unveiled a new innovation that blends its history of adaptation with a forward-thinking solution. At the corner of 12th and Madison streets, a new park—ResilienCity Park—is doing double duty. For the last 15 months, it’s been both a community play area for kids and a critical tool in flood prevention. The park can hold up to 2 million gallons of stormwater runoff in an underground tank, keeping it from flooding streets or entering local homes and businesses.
It’s not just any playground. The park, which is the largest of its kind in New Jersey, features traditional play equipment like swings and slides, but also a full basketball court and an athletic field. Below the surface, an underground tank stores hundreds of thousands of gallons of stormwater, effectively managing runoff from the city’s frequent storms.
This innovative idea of merging climate resilience with recreational spaces is becoming increasingly popular across the U.S. With support from organizations like the Trust for Public Land, more cities are looking to make playgrounds climate-smart. In cities like Chicago and Philadelphia, resilient parks are designed to manage stormwater, absorb carbon dioxide, and even combat heat island effects caused by asphalt and concrete.
Experts believe that these spaces do more than just store water—they serve as a teaching tool for the community. “This playground is a perfect example of multifunctionality,” says Daniella Hirschfeld, an environmental planning expert at Utah State University. “It’s a space for kids to play, but it’s also a stormwater storage facility, and it could even serve as a cooling center during extreme heat events.”
For Hoboken’s chief resilience officer, Caleb Stratton, the creation of ResilienCity Park is part of a broader effort to build smarter, more sustainable infrastructure. “It’s a park, stormwater pumping station, the whole thing,” Stratton explained. The city is incorporating features like rain gardens and pumps that return excess water back into the Hudson River, creating a comprehensive strategy to deal with flooding while improving quality of life.
The park’s history also gives it a deeper significance. Located on a former chemical plant site, the area was remediated before becoming the vibrant space it is today. The design aims to restore the natural ecology, with plants and wildlife returning to the site, creating a more sustainable and healthy environment for residents.
The park’s impact goes beyond flood mitigation. According to researcher Martin Karaba Bäckström, playgrounds designed for resilience also have a positive impact on children’s health and development. “Children who interact with more natural elements in play areas learn more about the environment and develop a stronger connection to nature,” Bäckström said. This connection, he added, could also inspire the next generation to take action against climate change.
Since its opening in June 2023, ResilienCity Park has become a popular spot for local families like Maren Schmitt, who sees the value in teaching her kids about both play and environmental responsibility. “It’s good for adults to also learn about it because, honestly, I wasn’t really aware of any of this,” she said. “It’s a great way to help preserve our town and build awareness about climate change.”
As Hoboken continues to innovate in the face of climate challenges, the hope is that other cities will follow suit. “We need more of this,” Schmitt said. “The more we can do to preserve our beautiful town, the better.”
This growing movement of creating climate-adaptive play spaces reflects an important shift in urban planning, where communities are reimagining the role of infrastructure in protecting both people and the planet. With the right mix of creativity and care, these multifunctional spaces could become the norm, offering protection from climate breakdown while fostering healthier, more engaged communities.
