Manresa Wilds

This former industrial power plant site, dormant and fenced off for over a decade, is becoming Manresa Wilds, a 125-acre park. The project restores nearly two miles of shoreline, preserves habitat, and returns an extraordinary piece of Connecticut's coast to the public.

Manresa Island is undergoing a remarkable transformation. Once used seasonally by the Siwanoy and Norwakee peoples for shellfishing and farming, the island has since been home to a Dutch settlement, a private estate, a Jesuit retreat, and, most recently, a massive peaker power plant and coal ash dump. Today, it is being reimagined as a public park for education, discovery, and joy. SCAPE's Master Plan vision, shaped by extensive community engagement and detailed ecological, remediation, and coastal research, charts a path toward a regional park like no other that thoughtfully reflects local needs and priorities. The Northern Forest is expected to open in summer 2027, with the full park following between 2032 and 2035.

Manresa Wilds will restore public access to a stretch of shoreline closed off for nearly 75 years, offering a new place for swimming, relaxing, and connection to the water's edge.

Manresa Wilds reconnects the community to Long Island Sound, restoring public access to a 130-acre site that has been fenced off for nearly 75 years and stood as a symbol of industrial pollution and fossil fuel dependence. The project builds safe public access, restores coastal ecosystems, and diversifies shoreline habitat. A choreographed sequence of immersive forest landscapes, expansive public beaches, coves, overlooks, terraced living shorelines, and tidal pools invites visitors to experience the wilds, alongside protected docks offering kayak access and day-use boat slips.

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Lawn

Power plant

Arrival plaza

Scrub scramble

Pine barren

Meadow

Beach

Pier + field station

Marina

Harbor

Shade structure + kayak rentals

Play

Sports courts

Parking

Forest parking

Nature play

Urban ecology center

Cedar swamp

Nursery + maintenance

Northern forest family trail

Forest pockets

Tide pools

Northern forest parking

Multimodal trail

Revitalized marsh + bridge

Manresa Wilds is designed to feel welcoming every season.

Tracing the timeline

Since the 1800s, Manresa Island has been home to a farmland, a spiritual retreat center, and a power plant. Originally inhabited by the Norwakee, part of the Siwanoy of the Wappinger Confederacy, the land was acquired by Dutch settlers in 1640s to cultivate grains and raising cattle.
After the arrival of passenger rail, Connecticut's coast became a popular urban retreat by the 1880s. Named for a spiritually significant Spanish city, Manresa served as a sanctuary for reflection at the Jesuit-founded Manresa Institute on Keyser Island— open to all regardless of status or wealth.
Despite major civic opposition, the Norwalk Zoning Commission approved power generation on Manresa Island in 1953. The Norwalk Harbor Generator was built in the years that followed, expanding the island with coal ash.
What followed was a story of industrial damage: a major oil spill, air and water contamination, wetlands were marked as critical areas of concern by the Norwalk Harbor Management Plan, and the plant was named one of Connecticut's 'Filthy Five' by the CT Coalition for Clean Air.
In 2013, Hurricane Sandy flooded nearly the entire Manresa property. The same year, the plant closed. For over a decade, the island has been cordoned off, allowing a unique urban ecology to quietly take hold.

Manresa Wilds is committed to a phased approach that delivers public benefits as quickly as possible while advancing the remediation and ecological restoration that will make the park safe and fully accessible. The Northern Forest is currently under construction. The accidental ecosystem that emerged from its neglected coal ash deposits is largely preserved by design: turkeys, deer, and the occasional coyote moving through a birch forest that sprouted from the ash; ospreys nesting along the rocky coast; interior wetlands formed by the ash storage cells. Impenetrable stands of phragmites are remade as open meadows, connected by a network of walking paths. As invasive species are removed, thousands of native trees and meadow grasses will be planted, folding in robust habitat for local bird populations and pollinators. Thirteen acres of native wetlands are revitalized and preserved. Reduced impervious surfaces and increased permeable materials manage stormwater on-site and prevent runoff into the harbor. Site wide critical infrastructure, including the power plant and main driveway, is elevated above flood level.

Shaped by thousands of voices

Since October 2024, over 3,000 Norwalk residents have contributed through public meetings, surveys, site tours, and direct conversations with neighborhood groups, local businesses, educators, and civic leaders. The final vision is a direct reflection of that input.
The full story of one year of community participation in the planning, research, and design of Manresa Wilds is documented in the Community Engagement Report, available on the project website.
Manresa Wilds has officially launched the Research and Education Station (R.E.S.A.), a consortium bringing together Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Maritime Aquarium, Wesleyan University, Sacred Heart University, and Norwalk Public Schools to expand environmental learning and scientific research along Long Island Sound.
R.E.S.A. initiatives are already underway. WHOI has installed water sensors in Norwalk Harbor to track real-time tides and gather sound-wave data. Wesleyan University is collecting first-person stories for an oral history project documenting the industrial history of the site.

The one-acre Meadow, part of Manresa Wilds' first phase, features a topographically diverse landscape with both wet and dry grassland habitats.

To ensure the site is resilient, the design expands living shorelines, adds tree canopy to combat extreme heat, and elevates portions of the site around the power plant to mitigate increased flooding and sea level rise.

The 3.5-acre Community Lawn serves as the green heart of Manresa Wilds, framed by meadow edges and forested areas with terraced seating, shaded hangouts, places for visitors to gather, and views of Long Island Sound.

The southern end of the site includes nature forward play areas for all ages and abilities with the scrub scramble, a sand lab, fort forest, play creek, rope towers, sports courts, and a community pool with a shaded pavilion.

The Urban Ecology Campus, adjacent to the Cedar Swap, features outdoor learning spaces that support immersive environmental education and workshops.

Learning is woven throughout: tidal pools, marsh trails, wildlife observation areas, and outdoor classrooms turn the park into a living laboratory. The Urban Ecology Campus, adjacent to the Cedar Swamp, will house a nursery, demonstration pavilion, and outdoor classrooms, supported by partnerships with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Wesleyan University, Sacred Heart University, and Norwalk Public Schools.

“Manresa Wilds is an innovative example of Connecticut at its best—bringing new life to historic spaces and creating something lasting for future generations. It shows how thoughtful investment and community partnership can transform our coastline to create new opportunities for residents and visitors alike.”

Ned Lamont

Connecticut Governor

SCAPE’s plan preserves the feeling and character of many of its post-industrial landscapes. At the heart of the site, the 1960-built power plant is being reimagined as a year-round community hub. BIG's adaptive reuse transforms the building's monumental interiors into over 200,000 square feet of flexibly programmed community space—converting fossil fuel infrastructure into social infrastructure. It is a model for how, with investment and coordination, decommissioned industrial buildings can become public assets rather than liabilities.

Manresa Wilds is the largest privately funded environmental cleanup and publicly accessible park project in Connecticut history with an estimated $410 million investment anchored and committed entirely to private philanthropy. This investment encompasses the critical work required to welcome the public safely, protect sensitive habitats, and preserve quality of life for neighbors: remediating decades of industrial contamination, developing climate-resilient infrastructure, and restoring the site's fragile coastal ecology to ensure its long-term health.

Together, these foundational efforts set the stage for all the other parts of the park that will make Manresa Wilds an unparalleled civic asset, educational center, and national model for transforming neglected industrial sites into vibrant public spaces.