[Botany professor Paloma Cariñanos] found it surprising that the design of these green spaces thought about landscaping, climate, and fashion criteria, but didn't think about pollen problems.
[She] says that in the future, urban green spaces 'will become 'comfort islands' inside 'urban heat islands.''...Cariñanos and her team stress that their research is a tool for planning and prevention. They hope that other cities will be able to use their methods to prevent high allergen levels. — phys.org

I looked back on resilience work designed for a Museum of Modern Art exhibition two years ago, called “Rising Currents.” It now seems prophetic.

Among the proposals by Susannah Drake of Dlandstudio and Stephen Cassell of Architecture Research Office was the “Sponge Slip,” which would have replaced a Lower Manhattan parking lot with a sunken park. The idea was to guide floodwaters into the park basin and away from the subway tunnels and electrical infrastructure that Sandy crippled. — bloomberg.com