UMass Boston Students are creating “Living Seawalls” at the Condor Street Urban Wild in East Boston

Well, this is cool!

Students from UMass Boston are experimenting by adding these strange honeycomb structures to the seawalls along Chelsea Creek in Eastie. The goal is to turn the stone seawalls into greener spaces, attracting plants and shellfish to live and grow.

According to WBUR, it’s a pilot project from Stone Living Lab at UMass Boston. The state has over 1,500 miles of coastline —and Boston alone has about 47.  These stone or concrete seawalls help protect the area from storms and floods, especially as risk increases with climate change. 

This pilot program is transforming the flat, lifeless wall into a “Living Seawall ” by installing 120 concrete panels into the granite blocks.

The articles continues stating each 40-pound, 2-foot-wide panel is covered with nooks and grooves. At high tide, the panels will be underwater, providing a home for seaweed and shellfish.

UMass will study the installations for signs of life over the next year to see which plants and animals show up and which of the five panel types allows marine organisms to flourish. So far, mussels and snails have already shown up just after a few days of installation!

Get all the details here.