MANRESA WILDS

Masterplan by SCAPE + BIG · Rendering by Pixelflakes

Manresa Wilds is a 125-acre brownfield-to-park redevelopment converting a former coal- and oil-burning power plant into a multi-use, publicly accessible parkland — reclaiming nearly two miles of Long Island Sound shoreline that had been closed to the public for almost 75 years. Led by a nonprofit and representing the largest privately funded environmental cleanup in Connecticut history, the project remediates legacy pollution while restoring coastal forest, wetlands, and living shorelines, and adaptively reusing the plant's structures as public and educational spaces.

My Role

During the park's first phase, the Northern Forest, I worked across both construction and design fields — supporting day-to-day coordination among staff, contractors, and partners, monitoring and documenting active work areas, and producing the design and visual communication that translates the park's vision into buildable form. View my resume on the bio page for more.

Renderings: Brand Application

Manresa's identity is built on a language of symbols — a visual vocabulary of the park's creatures, elements, and places. Meant as building blocks for characters and scenes, they form a living language that invites visitors to reinterpret the park and add to its lore. These renderings show that system applied across the site — as wayfinding and as discoveries to find.

Glyph Examples:

Glyphs by REACH; brand application and renderings by Jackson Fiscina

The core of this work was carrying a design intent through to construction. Every placement was resolved to be site-specific and constructible — sequenced to install during the active build or retrofit afterward, without disrupting the work on site. Wherever possible, the installations were designed to be built from materials repurposed from the site itself, keeping resources in place rather than importing new ones. Many glyphs are functional as well as ornamental, serving as wayfinding, trail markers, and tide gauges. Its design is considered from the perspective of delivery: not just how something looks, but how it gets built, sourced, and used — sustainably and in context.

Manresa Wilds Hard Hat Design:

Branded hard hats designed for the Manresa Wilds site, translating the park's visual identity onto standard safety equipment.