Key Takeaways:
- Hydro1® Pedestrian Flood Doors protected a historic New Jersey campus from repeated flooding by providing automatic, always-ready flood protection for the Shalom Center without requiring manual deployment.
- The project preserved the building’s historic appearance through custom-designed Hydro1 Pedestrian Flood Doors with matching architectural details and large glass panels that blended seamlessly with the existing structure.
- Automatic flood doors were the ideal solution where drainage improvements alone could not prevent flooding, helping safeguard a flood-prone property located along the Hudson River Palisades.
- Hydro1 Pedestrian Flood Doors combine industry-leading flood protection with certified performance, featuring the industry’s lowest leakage rate, FM Approvals certification to ANSI/FM 2510-2020 and Florida High Velocity Hurricane Zone approval.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace (CSJP) is a Roman Catholic religious organization founded in 1884 in England. Made up entirely of women, CJSP works to promote peace through justice, advocating for human rights and more. CSJP has a 14-acre campus in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, a small borough across the George Washington Bridge from New York City atop the Hudson River Palisades. This historic location is beautiful, peaceful, and unfortunately, prone to flooding during heavy rains.
Because the campus is located so near the cliffs that make up the Palisades, drainage is a challenge. The entire property slopes downward toward the cliffs, of course, putting the Shalom Center – an important administrative building at the lowest point on the campus – directly in the path of all the runoff. Redirecting too much excess water over the cliffs would wash out the roads running along the Hudson River below, meaning improved drainage could only do so much. A different approach to flood protection was necessary.
“We had two flooding events in four years thanks to heavy rains,” says Bill Cianci, who at the time oversaw CSJP’s properties in the United States. “The first storm flooded the Shalom Center, and while the second storm didn’t flood the building, the water runoff outside happened very quickly and was very, very heavy. We knew we needed to do something.”
Cianci’s search for a solution went through several stages, but ended with Jon Dupree of BK7 Associates, a flood mitigation company located in nearby New York City. Dupree often suggests products from PS Flood Barriers® to his customers, and for this project, the Hydro1® Pedestrian Flood Door was a natural fit.
“We installed three Hydro1 Flood Doors, which are an excellent solution. Plus, PS Flood Barriers’ ability to give us the style we wanted was a big factor. If we couldn’t have blended the style into the rest of our historic building, we probably wouldn’t have put flood doors in at all,” recounts Cianci.
Working with PS Flood Barriers even allowed Cianci and his team to customize the windows on the doors, another important part of the Shalom Center’s aesthetic. “We wanted a specific look and as much glass as possible. The team at PS Flood Barriers was able to get us what we needed.”
As a result, the Shalom Center now enjoys greatly improved flood protection without sacrificing its unique architectural charm. “I would definitely recommend Hydro1 Flood Doors,” says Cianci.
Hydro1 Pedestrian Flood Doors feature the lowest leakage rate in the industry and require no human intervention to deploy. They are tested and certified by FM Approvals to the ANSI/FM 2510-2020 standard and have even passed Florida Product Approval testing, including approval for the High Velocity Hurricane Zone (Miami-Dade and Broward counties). To learn more, visit www.psfloodbarriers.com or call 877-446-1519.