The BayArc operates on organic principles of buoyancy and the structural efficiency associated with net membranes and tension. It consists of a submerged, cable-reinforced membrane anchored to the seabed that utilizes a bladder embedded in a tensile leading edge fastened to structural pylons at the water's edge. When the peak tide is projected to rise above a threat level, the BayArc is temporarily deployed: it floats to the surface and its tensile membrane creates a barrier stretching from the water's edge to the sea floor, "shaving off" the peak into the bay.

It remains deployed until the high-tide peak has passed, then the bladder is deflated and it sinks and rests on the sea floor, allowing marine life and commercial traffic to pass. Projections for Sea Level rise by 2050 would require deployment for a few hours per day a few times per year. In an installation proposal for the San Francisco Bay, the BayArc membrane is connected to anchors on each side of the Golden Gate Bridge. As with the minimalism of its environmental intervention, the design is intended to provide a minimal aesthetic intervention, appearing and disappearing with the combination of weather systems and tidal phenomena.

The gracefulness of its arcing geometry derives naturally from the forces it withstands."