Project by Alexia Hernando Cracco
Tidal Clocks begins with a study of water’s capacity to remember—how the Hudson River carries traces of what it has passed through, what has been erased, and what is still unfolding. Pier 46 offers a layered site for this investigation. Once a functioning pier, its deck was removed in the early 2000s, leaving behind the timber columns that now support entire ecosystems. These piles register tidal lines, algae growth, salinity shifts, and decades of sea-level rise. They have transitioned from human infrastructure into ecological archives. Today, this area sits within one of Manhattan’s highest flood-risk zones. Sea levels along the Hudson have risen twelve inches in the last century, with projections of eight to thirty more inches by 2050. Water here is not only rising—it is rising faster. Even buried hydrological systems, like Minetta Creek, continue to flood during storms, reminding us that water inevitably returns to its original paths. The project responds to these conditions by creating a tidal clock: a series of walkways whose accessibility is determined entirely by the tide. At low tide, visitors walk deep between exposed columns and encounter marine life at eye level. At high tide, paths disappear underwater, making the daily and seasonal fluctuations of the river physically legible. Metal-grid walkways and vertical prosthetics attached to the columns reveal both present tidal rhythms and projected future water levels. Through movement, disappearance, and return, Tidal Clocks transform tidal behavior into public knowledge, offering a new spatial language for understanding climate change.
