NYC Health + Hospitals and NYCEDC have completed a new perimeter floodwall at Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem. FEMA funded the $112 million project, which guards the East River campus against a one-in-500-year storm and traces back to a 2016 response to Hurricane Sandy.
NYC Health + Hospitals and the New York City Economic Development Corporation marked completion of a perimeter floodwall shielding Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem, finishing a flood defense first authorized in 2016. Planning began after Hurricane Sandy exposed how vulnerable the Second Avenue campus had become to surge pushing in from the nearby East River.
Funded entirely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency at a cost of $112 million, the barrier rises between 8 and 12 feet along the property line. Engineers built in resilient floodgates reaching widths of up to 45 feet at entrance openings, a configuration meant to keep emergency vehicles and pedestrians moving while sealing the site during a storm. Designers rated the finished system to withstand a one-in-500-year flood event, a threshold that refers to a flood carrying roughly a 0.2 percent chance of striking in any given year.
Beyond the wall, crews upgraded the campus storm water detention system and reconfigured portions of the building exterior. Workers hardened the walls of the Mental Health Building, relocated medical supply services, and reinforced loading docks. New lighting, erosion controls, fire protection, and security upgrades rounded out the scope of construction.
Public realm features accompanied the engineering work. A picnic area now sits along First Avenue, joined by fresh seating and landscaping spread across the grounds. A commissioned piece by East Harlem artist Miguel Luciano, titled Joy, Love and Resistance in El Barrio, folds archival photographs by the late Hiram Maristany into the structure.
According to the joint announcement from the two agencies, Metropolitan ranked among the facilities hit hardest when Sandy struck in October 2012, alongside Bellevue, South Brooklyn Health, and the Coler campus. In that storm’s aftermath, the public hospital system launched 30 separate resiliency projects and secured roughly $1.8 billion in FEMA funding to carry them out.
The project sits at the Metropolitan Hospital campus on Second Avenue in East Harlem, bordering the East River.