Bluewater Beach

master planning

Welcome to a new vision, the development of a sparkling blue water beach on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, with the only clear water between Galveston, TX and Orange Beach, AL. Lagoons will host recreation, aquaculture, and a living shoreline with a walkable, bikeable edge for economic development that is ecologically-sensitive and resilient to storms.

Resilience depends upon multiple lines of defence: the marsh edge, living shoreline, still water lagoon, beach, roadway, development plinth and grade-level parking. The living shoreline dissipates wave energy offshore and reduces the need for beach renourishment. Designated lagoons will become leasable Oyster Production Ponds, protected from unplanned freshwater influxes and offshore releases.

Development will follow the sustainable principles of a compact, complete, and connected neighborhood. 5,000 units will be built over 20 years in clusters at a similar scale as Rosemary Beach, FL, using existing infrastructure corridors. Each neighborhood will include retail and restaurants, recreational amenities, and beachfront kiosks.

This planning concept later developed into a proposal for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create regenerative oyster reefs to shield military installations along the nation’s waterways. Although the proposal did not advance to the prototyping phase, it allowed unabridged to coordinate experts from Arcadis, USM Aquaculture, LogLinear Technology, NVision, and ECOncrete to establish a double-berm lagoon system that works in less-than desirable natural waterways.