Image Credit: Cameron Blaylock/Rebuild by Design
the nys Adaptation & Innovation Awards
New York State Adaptation & innovation Awards
As extreme weather becomes more common, New York needs community-led solutions that help neighborhoods adapt and stay strong. The NYS Adaptation & Innovation Awards celebrate projects and programs that help communities and natural areas prepare for these challenges. The awards are part of the NYS Adaptation Practitioners’ Network’s work to support collaboration, build skills, and promote effective strategies for climate adaptation. Our goal is to inspire communities across New York State to create resilient infrastructure that improves quality of life by reducing risks, enhancing public spaces, and supporting community well-being.
To review nominations, the NYS Adaptation Practitioners Network brought together a panel of experts in design, ecology, outreach, architecture, and advocacy. They scored projects based on innovation, multiple benefits, and community involvement. The judges also looked at how well each project reflected the Network’s shared Principles of Resilient Infrastructure.
We’re excited to recognize five outstanding projects in 2026—and we invite you to explore the full “Built to Inspire” project library.
2026 WINNERS
WINNER: SMALL COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE – Central New York Land Trust
The 144-acre O’Neill Family Farm Preserve sits just 2,000 feet from Skaneateles Lake, the drinking water source for Syracuse and more than 220,000 residents. Before the property entered conservation, stormwater runoff carried sediment and fertilizer-related nitrogen into the lake and contributed to flooding in nearby homes. Central New York Land Trust and partners, including The Nature Conservancy, are transitioning the former farmland by planting trees and shrubs that filter runoff, reduce pollution, and help mitigate increasingly severe storms. This project has engaged more than 200 volunteers from 25 partner organizations and municipalities and demonstrates climate resilience in action while building regional support for source water protection.
LOCATION: Central New York region of the Great Lakes Watershed
WINNER: MID-SIZED COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE – Groundwork Hudson Valley
Throwing Shade on Extreme Heat is the culmination of a three-year collaboration supported by Con Edison, bringing together Southwest Yonkers residents, artists, architects, and environmental advocates to design functional and beautiful shade structures for areas where planting trees is not an option. Groundwork Hudson Valley partnered with the Hudson River Museum to host an interactive exhibition featuring proposed designs, renderings, a model of the structures, and displays exploring extreme heat, community engagement, and residents’ lived experiences.
LOCATION: Southwest Yonkers, NY
CO-WINNER: LARGE COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT – Starr Whitehouse, BKSK
The Battery Playscape integrates New York’s climate narrative with play, promoting ecological literacy in children. The Battery’s playground was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, and the Playscape re-creates the playground, with a focus on resilience, flood protection, and mitigation. The 1.5 acre Playscape transforms an impervious flood-prone part of lower Manhattan into a verdant, biodiverse play destination demonstrating how New Yorkers can live with water, as it reduces the area’s risk of flooding from sea level rise, storm surge and inland flooding; its diverse plantings reduce the urban heat island effect.
LOCATION: New York, NY
CO-WINNER: LARGE COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT – Stantec
Situated at the southern tip of Manhattan, The Battery is one of New York City’s most iconic public spaces, a waterfront gateway to the City and the departure point for visits to the Statue of Liberty. The Battery Coastal Resilience project addresses immediate storm surge risk and projected 2100 sea level rise by elevating the waterfront wharf as part of a larger, layered flood protection system for lower Manhattan.
LOCATION: New York, NY
WINNER: TRANSFORMATIONAL PARTNERSHIP IN ADAPTATION – VHB, NYC Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development, ReAL Edgemere Community Land Trust
Resilient Edgemere was designed to protect a vulnerable Rockaway Peninsula waterfront community from chronic coastal flooding and storm surge, exacerbated by Superstorm Sandy, through a multi-agency partnership that paired climate adaptation with community-led land stewardship and equitable housing redevelopment. This waterfront reconnection strategy blends coastal resiliency with recreation access, while the housing and open space programming delivers more than 1,200 new residential units with mandatory inclusionary affordability. The partnership chain, including agencies aligning on rezoning, a community land trust owning and stewarding land, and VHB providing technical expertise across both tracks, created a governance model where climate adaptation and community ownership reinforce each other.
LOCATION: Rockaway, NY
THANKS TO OUR 2026 PARTNERS
BUILT TO INSPIRE: MORE NYS PROJECTS WE ADMIRE
FLOOD FORM
New York, NY
GREENING IN THE HARLEM RIVER WATERSHED
New York, NY
PROSPECT PARK LAKESHORE RESTORATION
New York, NY
EAST SIDE COASTAL RESILIENCY
New York, NY
GOTHAM PARK
New York, NY
SUCKER BROOK ENGINEERING AND REDESIGN
Canandaigua, NY
HEATWATCH BUFFALO
Buffalo, NY
HAMLIN BEACH STATE PARK SHORELINE RESTORATION
Hamlin, NY
OCEAN BEACH FLOOD MITIGATION & RESILIENCY
Village of Ocean Beach, NY
BUILDING A RESILIENT BROOKLYN
New York, NY
BRONX MUSLIM STEWARDS PROJECT
New York, NY
SUSTAINABLE LIBRARIES INITIATIVE
Bellport, NY
PUBLIC SPACE EQUITY PROGRAM
New York, NY
FLOODNET NYC
New York, NY
SMALL BUSINESS CLIMATE RESILIENCE PROGRAM
New York, NY
CLIMATE EDUCATION PASSIVE HOUSE TRAINING CENTER
New York, NY
SUNY CLIMATE RISK & RESILIENCE ASSESSMENT
Various Locations Statewide
THE RESILIENCE HUB PLAYBOOK
Multiple locations
INTERIM FLOOD PROTECTION MEASURES
New York City, NY
VILLAGE OF SLEEPY HOLLOW CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
Village of Sleepy Hollow, NY
BLUE WATER TASK FORCE
Rockaway Beach, New York City, NY
FLOOD RECOVERY FUND
ADIRONDACK AQUATIC ORGANISM PASSAGE
Westport, NY
FAR ROCKAWAY LIBRARY
Far Rockaway New York City, NY
COMMUNITY CLIMATE & HEALTH AMBASSADOR YOUTH INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
Bedford Stuyvesant, New York City, NY
CLIMATE STRONG COMMUNITIES NYC
New York City, NY
GOWANUS LOWLANDS
Gowanus New York City, NY
GREEN-WOOD STORM WATER PROJECT
Brooklyn New York City, NY
MALT DRIVE PARK
Queens New York City, NY
SHOREFRONT PARK LIVING SHORELINE & STREAM RESTORATION
Village of Patchogue, NY
PLANT PELHAM NATIVE
Pelham, NY
LIVING BREAK WATERS
Staten Island New York City, NY
OASIS POP UP
Various Locations New York City, NY
SOUTH BATTERY PARK CITY RESILIENCY PROJECT
NYCHA SOUTH JAMAICA HOUSES CLOUDBURST PROJECT
South Jamaica New York City, NY
NEIGHBOR-HOOD TREE PLANTING
New York City, NY
WEST POND LIVING SHORELINE
Jamaica Bay, New York City, NY
SOUTH BRONX RESILIENCY HUBS
South Bronx, New York City, NY
RESILIENT SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES CONEY ISLAND
Coney Island, NY
WELLESLEY ISLAND WILDLIFE CROSSING AND ROAD REALIGNMENT
ROCKLAND PLANNING & LAND USE WITH STUDENTS
RESTORATION OF OUR HUDSON RIVER SALTWATER MARSH
Yonkers, NY