The Village of Robbins has lived with flooding for generations. Located within a low-lying floodplain south of Chicago, the historically self-governed Black community relied for decades on infrastructure capable of handling only modest rainfall. As storms became heavier, flooding increasingly affected homes, streets, and everyday life.

The challenge extended beyond managing stormwater. Robbins had also experienced years of disinvestment, making it essential that new infrastructure address immediate environmental needs without displacing residents or limiting the community’s future opportunities.

The question became larger than how to move water through the Village: how could essential infrastructure reduce flooding while also becoming a catalyst for a more resilient and connected community?

Through public meetings, collaboration with residents, and ongoing dialogue with Village leadership, the planning team developed the Vision for Robbins Master Plan—an approach that pairs critical stormwater infrastructure with long-term community investment.

Robbins Stormwater Park represents the first major phase of that vision. Rather than treating drainage infrastructure as something to hide, the project transforms it into a resilient public landscape designed to accommodate the 100-year storm while restoring ecological function and creating opportunities for recreation and gathering.

Rock led the design of the project and oversaw construction of its first stage while at Living Habitats, bringing together engineering, landscape, and community priorities within a single piece of public infrastructure.

The park demonstrates how infrastructure can do more than solve a single problem. Innovative engineering strategies are paired with thoughtful reuse of materials already found on the site.

Stone excavated while creating the park’s new drainage features was reused to armor the channel edges rather than being removed from the site. At the northern end, where the channel connects with the Cal-Sag Channel, that material also helps shape a safe-water zone intended to accommodate kayaks, canoes, and other personal watercraft.

In this way, infrastructure built to manage flooding also becomes part of the community landscape—supporting ecological performance, recreation, and new ways for residents to engage with the water.