Infrastructure protectionWinners announced in NY, NJ coastal protection ideas competition
Ten of the ideas submitted to the Rebuild by Designcompetition, launched by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, were selected as the most promising concepts for sustainable ways to protect Sandy-affected regions from future catastrophes.
Ten of the ideas submitted to the Rebuild by Design competition, launched by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and led by U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Shaun Donovan, were selected as the most promising concepts for sustainable ways to protect Sandy-affected regions from future catastrophes.
The Insurance Journal reports that the project’s goal is to adopt ideas which are realistic and financially feasible, but that some the ideas selected would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would require broad collaboration among numerous entities in the public and private sector.
Still, officials involved in the competition look forward to sparking conversations and initiating regional collaboration, ultimately getting policy makers to adopt effective strategies which will protect individuals and property from future storms.
“Some of the projects are huge … but all of them have aspects of small-scale solutions,” said Henk Ovink, co-chairman of the jury that helped Donovan make the selections.
One popular idea, nicknamed “Big U,” was proposed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, an architectural firm based in Denmark. The concept envisions a network of flood barriers divided into “small, relatively simple projects” customized to fit each neighborhood and built on independent timetables. In one section, like Battery Park, the barrier might take the form of a grassy slope. On the West side Highway, the barrier would be tucked into the street median. Other locations could disguise the barriers as public art. The essence of this particular proposal is to reduce the cost entailed by a massive seawall built around the city of New York.
Other winning concepts include a planwhichwould turn part of New Jersey’s meadowlands into a regional “tidal park,” while simultaneously opening up part of the area to development.
The selected teams will proceed to a new phase of the competition in which teams will collaborate with local leaders and planners to develop concrete plans and explore budgetary options.
Dr. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which helped coordinate the Rebuild by Design competition, said each selected project was “thoughtful, innovative and will ultimately inform development in locations facing similar challenges.”
