Archinect - News

Pratt Institute launches new Center for Climate Adaptation aimed at researching resiliency solutions for island cities

2024-03-13T14:28:00-04:00

Pratt Institute has announced the creation of the new Center for Climate Adaptation (CCA). The initiative is part of its alignment with The New York Climate Exchange, a consortium of research institutions that will use Governor’s Island as its hub for climate change investigations and education. David Erdman, an associate professor in the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design (GAUD) program, will lead the center as its first Director.

Pratt says the new CCA is aimed partially at protecting global island cities such as New York and Singapore. The focus expands on the United Nations Archipelago Agenda and will include experts taken from every subfield of architecture and urban design. Pace University and Singapore University of Technology and Design have signed on as academic partners in the initiative as well.

The school's President, Frances Bronet, stated: “The Center combines our deep engagement with the local community and global networks, and our collaborative approach to critic...

New York City is actually sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers

2023-05-22T13:57:00-04:00

New York City is sinking under the weight of its skyscrapers, new research shows, which could put its population of more than 8 million people at an increased risk of coastal flooding. [...] Researchers estimated the weight of all of New York City’s buildings to be around 842 million tons. But to find the areas more vulnerable to sinking — or, as they call it in more scientific terms, “subsidence” — a key factor to consider was the type of soil beneath the buildings.

A new study authored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) found the city to be sinking at a rate of between 1 to 2 millimeters per year, while parts of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island are subsiding at a rate of 2.75 millimeters. This comes at a time when planning officials, architects, and building owners are scrambling to adapt to the shrinking office market accelerated by the pandemic.

The increased flood risk, enhanced by construction densification, is particularly dangerous to coastal cities whose clay-rich soil causes “material softness and ability to flow under pressure,” according to the study.

The Army Corps of Engineers reveals initial coastal resiliency plan for New York City

2022-10-03T09:00:00-04:00

The federal government wants to build a massive system of storm surge gates and seawalls to protect the New York harbor region from flooding and has put forth a much-delayed plan that would remake coastal areas from upper Manhattan down to Jamaica Bay. The Army Corps estimates construction on the $52 billion project would begin in 2030 and be complete by 2044. The project must be first approved by federal, state and local officials and funded before any of the work can start.

The New York District, North Atlantic Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released a 569-page report outlining a coastal storm risk management feasibility study. According to The City's Samantha Maldonado, a public comment period will be held through January 6th, 2023, as a means to help "inform the design." Maldonado also reported that the government expects plans to be finalized by 2025.

The Army Corps also released an interactive map that details individual aspects of the initial proposal, which Columbia University climate scientist Paul Gallay said will "set the tone for coastal protection and community viability for decades to come."

"We have a lot more room to advocate for environmental justice communities and truly sustainable solutions than many of the other plans would have allowed for," Victoria Sanders, a research analyst at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, told the publication. "There is still a long road and a lot of unknowns between now a...

Port cities in Asia most at risk for climate-related flooding according to new data

2021-10-06T17:36:00-04:00

Cities with the worst exposure to coastal flooding in the coming decades are overwhelmingly located in Asia, according to a comprehensive analysis by leading climate scientists, with port cities in India and China particularly vulnerable.

An international team of research scientists from the US OECD and UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, among others, has found that Asian cities are now disproportionately susceptible to flooding owing to migration patterns and a host of other environmental dangers included in climate change.

Using data projections from the 136 port cities around the world that have populations north of one million people, the report ranked each based on its potential exposure to coastal floods in the 2070s. CNBC has an interactive map of the list’s ten largest Asian urban areas, including Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, and Mumbai, here.

It turns out seawalls might not be the most thought-out way to address sea level rise

2021-07-20T17:08:00-04:00

As the world heats up and sea levels rise, communities in the U.S. could spend more than $400 billion on seawalls to try to hold the ocean back over the next couple of decades. But there’s a catch: Building a seawall in one area can often mean that flooding gets even worse in another neighborhood or city nearby.

A new paper from The Natural Capital Project at Stanford University that examines how seawalls might impact California's Bay Area was published this spring, adding to a slate of similar scholarship surrounding seawalls that have cropped up in recent years. Other efforts have seen a vigorous public pushback where proposed.

Cities like New York and Copenhagen have mulled plans for expensive sea walls that may in the end be inadequate. Some have pointed to the damaging effects on beaches as potential non-starters.

Fast Company has more on the encroaching issue here.

As the rising Pacific slowly swallows California's beaches, managed retreat becomes a dividing topic in coastal cities

2019-07-09T08:00:00-04:00

While other regions grappled with destructive waves and rising seas, the West Coast for decades was spared by a rare confluence of favorable winds and cooler water. This “sea level rise suppression,” as scientists call it, went largely undetected. [...] But lines in the sand are meant to shift. In the last 100 years, the sea rose less than 9 inches in California. By the end of this century, the surge could be greater than 9 feet.

In her LA Times long read, Rosanna Xia tells the tale of coastal cities up and down the Golden State and their increasing struggles to defend beaches, infrastructure, and (mostly pricey) properties against the rising sea that relentlessly chews away on a coastline many perceived as permanent.

"Retreat is as un-American as it gets, neighborhood groups declared. To win, California must defend," Xia writes. "But at what cost? Should California become one long wall of concrete against the ocean? Will there still be sandy beaches or surf breaks to cherish in the future, oceanfront homes left to dream about? More than $150 billion in property could be at risk of flooding by 2100 — the economic damage far more devastating than the state’s worst earthquakes and wildfires."

Design, Bitches lead pedestrian-friendly remodel of a major shopping center in Los Angeles

2018-08-20T16:23:00-04:00

...the center, known as Runway, is being remade as a place where pedestrians will be more inclined to hang out, shop and eat — without having to dodge vehicles. After seeing the closed-off streets packed with people during farmers markets and other special events, manager DJM Capital Partners Inc. concluded that Runway’s autocentric ethos was outdated and has decided to make the ban full time, even though the center was built only three years ago in the recently developed community.

The Runway, a 220,000 square foot retail space in Los Angeles neighborhood Playa Vista, will undergo a $9.1 million renovation lead by local architect team Design, Bitches. The complex is located next to Marina Del Rey, Venice, and Santa Monica making it part of the Westside area known as "Silicon Beach". The new plan for Runway focuses on closing off the streets and creating a more pedestrian friendly space.

The Runway at Playa Vista rendering by Design, Bitches. Image: Design, Bitches.

As shopping centers face major changes to compete with online stores, these spaces are being rebranded as "lifestyle centers" focusing on public space as their main attraction. The Runway renovation is expected to be complete by early 2019.

Who owns real estate flooded from climate change?

2018-05-03T16:54:00-04:00

As seas rise and coasts wash away, who owns the land that goes underwater? Versions of that debate are taking place in courtrooms, legislatures, and government offices, raising the question of whether and when climate change justifies seizing private property. The stakes are enormous, affecting not just ownership of offshore mineral and fishing rights but also potentially trillions of dollars of coastal real estate.

Climate change has left many rules governing real estate ownership murky. As sea levels rise this especially affects coastal property and laws hinging on high-tide lines.

Living Breakwaters wins 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

2014-10-23T15:06:00-04:00

"Living Breakwaters" took the grand prize of the 2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, considered to be the highest award for social impact design. Designed by a multidisciplinary team led by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture, Living Breakwaters uses an "Oyster-tecture" ecological intervention concept to help create resiliency for coastal cities. As its starting point, the project uses the Northeastern Seaboard of the U.S., which suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Sandy.

Kate Orff of SCAPE will accept the Fuller Challenge prize and the US$100,000 cash award on behalf of the winning team at The Wythe in Brooklyn, NY on November 20.

The SCAPE team is composed of: SCAPE/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE with Parsons Brinckerhoff, Dr. Philip Orton / Stevens Institute of Technology, Ocean & Coastal Consultants, SeArc Ecological Consulting, LOT-EK, MTWTF, The Harbor School and Paul Greenberg.

Head over to Bustler to learn more about the project.

Tidal Flooding Expected to Wreak Havoc on American Cities

2014-10-09T09:29:00-04:00

Many major U.S. coastal cities will face a huge surge in the number of tidal floods they experience as sea levels rise due to climate change, a new report has warned. The study, conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), covered 52 cities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Portland, Maine, to Freeport, Texas, and predicts a dramatic increase in flooding linked to high tides over the next few decades.