For the next several months, nine sites will be the focus of efforts to design for resilience as sea levels rise. Proposals involve "threading nature back into an urbanized terrain."
Resilient by Design's Bay Area Challenge has put ten multidisciplinary teams to work conceptualizing "a region where cities and nature are entwined more closely than ever before." Their impetus: the need to design places that can handle rising seas.
As John King writes, "The challenge, which is being funded by local governments and the Rockefeller Foundation, is modeled on New York and New Jersey’s rebuilding effort after Hurricane Sandy in 2012."
The Bay Area effort, by contrast, isn't a response to "calamitous damage." It's a bid to prepare for a gradual threat, and invites participants to reimagine how cities interact with nature. Many of the designs, King says, involve "threading nature back into an urbanized terrain, so to speak."
The challenge began with a competition last year, with the ten winning teams each receiving $250,000 for their projects. The final proposals are expected in May. "The months ahead will be spent burrowing into the specific locations, and reaching out to the surrounding communities to make sure there's widespread participation in the final proposals."
FULL STORY: Design competition tackles sites around Bay Area to address rising waters
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Making the Bay Area Resilient By Design
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research