SCAPE and Bjarke Ingels to turn former Connecticut power plant site into public park

After a private company’s plan to develop waterfront housing languished, Manresa Island, an extension of Norwalk, Connecticut that reaches into Long Island Sound, sat in limbo, held captive by the hulking mass of a defunct 20th-century power plant that rose from its lush marshland. Area residents Austin and Allison McChord have unveiled a plan to transform the abandoned land into a fully accessible and dynamic natural park and community destination with event and recreation spaces by 2030. The couple enlisted the aid of internationally renowned architect Bjarke Ingels of BIG and award-winning landscape architecture firm SCAPE to design the next life for the island as a thriving community hub.

Manresa Island Corp., the nonprofit created by the McChords, unveiled this week its vision for the public destination that would transform the 125-acre island and open 1.75 miles of its waterfront for the first time in nearly a century.

The plan reimagines the decommissioned fossil-fuel-powered facility that anchors the island as a public amenity for the surrounding community, offering passive and active programming, an enhanced ecological habitat, and opportunities to discover the surrounding water. The nonprofit has also vowed to fund and manage the park in perpetuity.

The unprecedented project was made possible by a private investment by Austin McChord, a Norwalk native who founded and later sold the successful cybersecurity firm Datto, and his wife, Allison, an architect. According to the New York Times, the couple first discovered the island while kayaking nearby, noticing its natural beauty and imagining the land as a space for the community, as well as native wildlife, to enjoy.

“As someone who has both lived and worked in Norwalk, it’s an incredible feeling to be able to give back to this community,” Austin McChord said in a statement. “Manresa Island has always been an amazing location locked away from the public. Transforming this 125-acre space into a publicly accessible park is going to allow the site to be enjoyed for generations to come.”

“Connecticut has a gorgeous coastline, and now the residents of Norwalk and of our state will have full access to a new park located on the water in an area where recreational access had been prevented for decades,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement.

“I am very grateful for the McChords’ commitment to Connecticut, and on behalf of the state I thank them for all they are doing with Manresa Island.”

With plans to open in 2030, the project’s development will happen in phases. When complete, a re-born park the size of 95 football fields will function as an educational hub for learning and community engagement, including water activities, children’s play areas, and university research opportunities.

Unique public and ecologically significant amenities that will grace the abandoned power plant site include green lawn and meadow vistas, a public beach with Long Island Sound and New York City views, a pedestrian bridge and walking paths, outdoor thermal pools and separate pool areas, and a pier and boat launch.

The park’s design will be helmed by innovative landscape architecture firm SCAPE, which envisions a thriving natural habitat and exciting programming with educational and adventure opportunities for people of all ages. The plan will combine landscape and architecture to revive the island’s coastal habitats while ensuring the site is resilient, using living shorelines, tree canopy, and strategic elevation.

“It’s just incredible that this private industrial parcel–which has pockets of rocky coastline, thriving wetlands, sandy beaches, and shady woodlands–is going to be healed and made public for all to enjoy,” SCAPE founding principal Kate Orff said. “We at SCAPE are honored to play such a pivotal role in transforming Manresa Island into a vibrant public park that combines Norwalk’s rich heritage with a forward-looking regenerative landscape design.”

The abandoned Manresa Island power plant’s 250,000-square-foot infrastructure has been re-invisioned as a one-of-a-kind recreational space, led by BIG. This adaptive reuse plan will transform the structure to include swimming options, event spaces, food and beverage offerings, research and educational opportunities, and other water-focused recreation. The unique conversion project hopes to set a precedent for the sustainable redevelopment of abandoned and decommissioned power plants.

Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director of BIG, described the firm’s role in the project as, “an extension of SCAPE’s resettlement of the island for the enjoyment of human life among many other forms of life, we seek to extend that resettlement into the cavernous spaces within.”

Ingels added: “By editing rather than adding, we will open up and clear out the existing spaces so that the once coal-powered plant can become the framework for the social and cultural life of Manresa’s future—from energy infrastructure to social infrastructure.”

The nonprofit will officially acquire the site from its current owner, Argent Ventures, this fall. National institutions and local community organizations will be partnering with Manresa Island Corp. on both the project and future programming.

SCAPE and the nonprofit will begin the process of engaging with the community in 2025, to arrive at a design that meets goals of sustainability, resilience, and dynamic ecological design.

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