Bayside Adapts

In the coming decades, rising sea levels will pose a serious threat to the integrity and vitality of the Bayside neighborhood of Portland, ME.  Our concept proposes severing the Back Cove from the ocean with a dam, which would stabilize water levels and allow Bayside and other neighborhoods to continue to grow. Back Cove Pond will offer new opportunities for waterfront development and recreation, as well as enhance transportation and local ecology. New development, in combination with the planned transformation from the highway to boulevard, will create vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood growth centers.  Bayside will become a neighborhood of waterfront park land, with a network of pedestrian and cycling routes to connect the neighborhood to the city.  Back Cove Pond will serve vital ecological functions, collecting and naturally treating stormwater from the surrounding urban watershed, providing habitat, and supporting a diversity of species.