CAZA Architects

SURBA

Project Size: Extra Large

Long Island City Oyster

How can a new development reconnect a neighborhood to its waterfront?

After a boom in high-rise residential development, Long Island City—now more densely built and populated—lacked the balanced mix of uses and infrastructure that makes for a thriving community. As manufacturing retreated, the waterfront—once the focal point of the community—became desolate and abandoned.

To address these issues, CAZA developed Long Island City Oyster, a masterplan and new development model for New York City that reconnects the neighborhood to a revitalized waterfront. The plan creates a network of public spaces that knit together new buildings and link them to the water, laying the groundwork for a vibrant, resilient district. These public spaces work in synergy with a programming mix that positions the waterfront as a center of activity and strengthens its ecosystems through principles of metabolic architecture.

LIC Oyster waterfront boardwalk and public pool on the East River with Queensboro Bridge and terracotta buildings.
Long Island City Oyster

We consider each project on its own terms and develop tailored responses. Learn about our vision and mission.

Reconnecting Long Island City to its waterfront
The project’s built footprint accounts for only 55% of the total site area, leaving the rest of the space for a 2.5-acre park that unifies the buildings and reconnects Long Island City to its waterfront. Designed with parametric tools to optimize sightlines, circulation, and sunlight access, the park hosts year-round outdoor and indoor amenities, including a 7,000-square-foot black box performance space, a waterfront ice skating rink that converts into a pool for the summer months, a riverside bosque, a restored oyster-bed wetland, an eco-themed children’s playground, an open plaza for farmer’s markets, a sandy beach, and a ferry landin

Ecologically Sensitive Design
The plan incorporates rainwater recycling measures and adds water-efficient landscaping that filters storm-water while counteracting urban heat island effect. The building’s modular massing and siting optimize passive temperature control and natural ventilation, reducing overall energy consumption and enabling eco-industrialization strategies that balance human activity with ecological stewardship.

Street-level plaza at LIC Oyster with arched retail base, terracotta shingles, trees, and outdoor seating.
Long Island City Oyster

Our approach is strategically driven and informed. Click here to learn about our process.

Public Gateways
The base of the buildings are shaped into sweeping public gateways that reinterpret the local industrial aesthetic of arches and recall the outlines of an oyster shell. Lined with community programs—including shops, social services, multi-purpose event space, and a supermarket—these gateways interface with the surrounding park to create an inviting district for residents of Long Island City and visitors alike.

Water strategy diagram for LIC Oyster showing rain harvesting, cisterns, water pathways, riverbank ecology, and green roofs.
Long Island City Oyster
Seasonal performance diagram of LIC Oyster with winter heat-loss control and summer natural ventilation.
Long Island City Oyster
Site plan of LIC Oyster mapping plaza, farmers market, ferry and kayak piers, river pool/ice rink, and landscape.
Long Island City Oyster

Victorias Eco-Hub

Could a manufacturing park work as hard for the ecosystem and the public realm as the economy?

Victorias Eco-Hub—based on a 2018 United Nations study of greener industrialization models—is a 450-hectare district that embodies the principles of eco-industrialization, blending industrial, manufacturing, and agricultural facilities with public space and ecological stewardship. Designed with an ethos of resiliency, the Eco-Hub creates systems where programs reuse one another’s waste products, maximizing economic growth while minimizing environmental impact. Household water waste, for example, is treated and redirected to farming, sugar-cane refining, and electronics manufacturing. Excess ethanol from sugar-cane processing is converted into green energy, which powers fisheries, greenhouse farms, and cement plants. This regenerative feedback system reflects the principles of metabolic architecture, where flows of material, water, and energy circulate through the district. A digital twin measures key metrics in real-time, giving owners full control over plant operations while ensuring resiliency and adaptability to future conditions.

Virtuous Cycle
Our design weaves a fine-grain circulation network through a continuous ecological corridor of existing watersheds, riparian ecosystems, and new flood-retention basins. This creates a physical feedback loop—waste fuels manufacturing, and low-carbon technologies generate energy that feeds back into the system—exemplifying a holistic approach to metabolic architecture.

Holistic Planning
More than just an industrial zone, the Eco-Hub is conceived as a resilient city. It integrates a strong public realm and community resources—including university facilities, housing, and open markets—alongside its manufacturing base. The urban block structure promotes variety and density, lowering the carbon footprint, while the adaptable massing design allows buildings to hybridize or convert over time, sustaining resiliency and supporting long-term eco-industrialization.

Our approach is strategically driven and informed. Click here to learn about our process.

Connecting the regiong
Located on Negros—the Philippine island with the highest concentration of agriculture- and technology-focused universities—the Eco-Hub taps into the local knowledge economy. Strategically sited between the island’s airport, beaches, and downtown, it strengthens connections between these destinations and creates porous movement frameworks that foster a livable, resilient city aligned with eco-industrialization principles.

Haishu Waterfront

How can data help cities design for 21st-century challenges?

Contemporary Chinese cities are facing new challenges. As the country’s urban centers expand and districts continue to rise on previously vacant land, traditional development strategies are proving outdated. Buildings designed to address immediate needs do not necessarily create neighborhoods that support long-term growth, and the fast-expanding cities threaten to sprawl if new districts do not integrate with the surrounding landscapes and urban fabric.

We consider each project on its own terms and develop tailored responses. Learn about our vision and mission.

A bold heading for something important about this project
To overcome these challenges, CAZA designed Haishu Waterfront district using a forward-looking data-driven, parametric design approach. Located on an island in Ningbo, one of China’s largest port cities, the district is based on a fine-grain modular grid that enhances the city’s existing road network and orients the new district towards its waterfronts.

Site Strategy
With the conclusions from data analyses, CAZA developed a modular urban grid that enhances regional connectivity and provides the conditions for a livable mixed-use community. A network of open green space extends from a riverfront park to the east to the canal on Haishu’s western edge. Three primary roads—a commercial avenue, green avenue, and waterfront avenue—define centers of public life. These are intersected by large roadways that connect Haishu to the surrounding city. Secondary roads and alleys throughout bolster connectivity within the district and give rise to a fine-grain street pattern that ensures lively and walkable streets.

Our approach is strategically driven and informed. Click here to learn about our process.

Data-driven development
The design of Haishu’s urban grid is based on comprehensive analyses of regional conditions. Road and subway accessibility studies informed the layout and distribution of streets, allowing them to improve connectivity throughout the city and alleviate congestion on overworked roadways. By analyzing local real estate transactions, CAZA developed zoning and density strategies that respond to demand for residential and commercial space—ensuring the new development works with the surroundings to create a functional urban ecosystem built on principles of distributive networks and resiliency.

Community Life
The masterplan creates a rich sense of local identity and community life centered on Haishu’s unique waterfront setting. Destinations like an Ecology Educational Center, Sports Club, and Ecological Park activate the waterfront and draw visitors from throughout the city. These are complemented by public amenities further inland, including a canal-side shopping mall and hotel and convention center—offering a model for urbanism aligned with regenerative health and eco-industrialization.