Living Breakwaters, a 2,400-linear-foot coastal resiliency project conceived to minimize future flooding and erosion risk along the Superstorm Sandy–ravaged south shore of Staten Island while enhancing the marine ecosystem of the Lower New York Bay, has been recognized with the 2023 Obel Award.

Now in its fifth cycle, the annual international architecture prize—a flagship program of the Copenhagen-based Henrik F. Obel Foundation—seeks to honor projects designed “in service of both people and the planet.” Living Breakwaters was initially developed by SCAPE, a New York–based landscape architecture and urban design studio, for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s post-Sandy Rebuild by Design competition.