Wagner Park, Battery Park
Waterfront hardscape design rarely gets a second chance to perform. When the surface fails in a coastal environment, the consequences reach beyond aesthetics: drainage systems back up, surfaces heave under freeze-thaw cycles, and structural repairs in a high-traffic civic space carry enormous costs.
At Wagner Park in Battery Park, Lower Manhattan, the project team needed a permeable hardscape system capable of meeting the rigorous demands of a flood-prone waterfront while delivering the refined finish expected of one of New York City’s most prominent public parks. Installed across summer and fall 2025, this large-scale new construction project brought together New York State, New York City Parks, landscape architects AECOM and SiteWorks, and installer Prestige Stone and Pavers to accomplish exactly that.
PRODUCT SELECTION
The project team selected a combination of ROMEX products for Wagner Park: the ROMEX System Guarantee (RSG) assembly, ROMEX TRASS BED, ROMEX D1, and ROMEX PROFI-DEKO.
The selection was driven by three intersecting priorities: permeability, structural durability, and coastal resilience. ROMEX TRASS BED served as the foundation of the system, providing a permeable, frost-resistant bedding layer capable of supporting traffic loads up to 40 tons while maintaining water infiltration rates up to 700 inches per hour. Its cementitious composition with TRASS minerals eliminates paver movement through a wet-on-wet bonded connection with the thin-set adhesion layer, removing the risk of surface displacement that would be particularly problematic in a high-use coastal park setting. It also carries approximately 30 to 40 percent less embodied carbon than conventional concrete, aligning with the sustainability objectives embedded in this public infrastructure project.
ROMEX D1, a permeable jointing mortar with a 7.5-ton axle load rating, was used to secure paving units and provide a joint system resistant to de-icing salts, frost, and the repetitive loading that comes with serving thousands of visitors in an urban park environment. ROMEX PROFI-DEKO, the system’s resin-bound bonded aggregate product, introduced a contrasting surface texture within the paving pattern, integrated directly over the TRASS BED substrate. This combination created something technically and visually distinctive: a paving design that layered bonded aggregate within a structured stone pattern, all tied together through a single, continuous permeable system beneath.
The ROMEX RSG framework binding these products provides access to a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty, a meaningful assurance for a public infrastructure investment of this scale.
PROJECT LOCATION
PROJECT NEEDS
The core challenge at Wagner Park was not finding a material that looked right. It was finding a system that could perform under the full range of environmental stressors specific to a coastal urban waterfront, while also delivering the design quality the project demanded.
Flood resilience was the non-negotiable starting point. The site’s position within the broader Battery Park waterfront placed it squarely within the stormwater and resilience planning framework that governs new construction across Lower Manhattan. The hardscape system needed to manage water at the surface, allowing infiltration rather than forcing runoff into an already-stressed drainage infrastructure. A conventional impermeable paving system, however well-installed, would not meet this requirement.
Durability requirements were equally demanding. Wagner Park is not a low-traffic amenity. It serves a dense urban population with heavy daily use, and it needed to do so for decades without significant maintenance intervention or surface disruption. Joint integrity under foot traffic, resistance to freeze-thaw cycles, and long-term structural stability under the range of loading conditions present in a public park all required a system with verifiable performance credentials, not just a specification that looked adequate on paper.
The design team also needed flexibility. AECOM and SiteWorks were not working toward a monolithic surface. The design intent called for visual differentiation within the paving field, integrating bonded aggregate panels alongside more formal stone paving, all within a coherent overall composition. Finding a single system substrate that could support both surface treatments without requiring different base assemblies was a meaningful technical constraint.
Coastal environments also impose material-specific demands. Salt exposure accelerates deterioration in many conventional jointing and bedding materials, leading to joint failure, efflorescence, and eventual structural compromise. The selected products needed to demonstrate salt resistance as a baseline performance requirement, not as an optional feature.
PROJECT SOLUTION
Coastal-resilient design in a prominent public park
Lower Manhattan, NY
2025
AECOM | SiteWorks
Commercial
