City on the Loop reimagines Brooklyn’s Canarsie Pier as a dynamic coastal system that evolves with rising sea levels. Rather than resisting water, it proposes a new kind of shoreline—one that loops between land and sea, integrating housing, mobility, infrastructure, and ecology.

The project begins with the Belt Parkway, a highway that has long divided the neighborhood from the waterfront. Instead of removing it, the design builds above it—adding new housing and a light rail connection. This elevated structure becomes the first segment of a continuous urban edge.

The system grows in three phases:

Phase One retrofits the Belt Parkway, transforming it from a barrier into a foundation for elevated housing and transit.

Phase Two introduces commercial and public programs—markets, plazas, and green corridors that generate local employment and soften the land–sea transition.

Phase Three completes the loop with a flood-resisting megastructure, doubling as storm protection and a civic spine.

More than a form, the loop is a methodology—one that accepts uncertainty, enables adaptive growth, and redefines how coastal cities can coexist with climate change.

The design was developed through ecological analysis, sectional modeling, and AI-assisted spatial iteration. While AI tools were used to explore gradients and phasing, the project also imagines a future where AI helps the city evolve—tracking tides, usage, and climate data to guide expansion, performance, and collective well-being. Within this context, the project offers a new vision: not a smart city for control, but a sensitive city that learns, adapts, and builds with the environment—not against it.