NJIT's Tom Dallessio Speaks at United Nations to Celebrate World Cities Day 2014

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On Oct. 31, 2014, Tom Dallessio, director of NJIT’s Center for Resilient Design, gave an address at the United Nations to celebrate the inaugural World Cities Day 2014, a celebration of global urban transformations led by UN-Habitat. The following is his address:

World Cities Day Address

Salutation Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished guests: Buon Giorno!  I am Tom Dallessio, Director of the Center for Resilient Design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a Board Member of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization. I’m pleased to join you in celebrating World Cities Day 2014.

Introduction As you know, urbanization is occurring all around the world; but to ensure it is sustainable, we must plan and design cities to be economically, environmentally and socially resilient. As you also well know, for the first time in history, over half of the world’s population is living in cities and towns. Constantly on the rise, it is expected to reach almost 5 billion by 2030 and 6.3 billion by 2050. The concentration of peoples with diverse backgrounds, and different cultural and ethnic origins and beliefs provides both challenges and opportunities that leaders throughout the world must recognize and address. Because cities of all sizes struggle to provide resources and apply good practices to respond to the magnitude of this change, the UN correctly recognizes the importance of managing social inclusion in people-centered urbanization. Today’s message, on World Cities Day 2014, is that there is a critical need to lead urban transformations. I thank the United Nations, UN-Habitat, the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations, and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations for providing the civic space to raise difficult questions and seek shared answers. The Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization is pleased to contribute to this dialogue. As an urban planner, I know that cities are faced with the end results of transnational and internal migration. The pressures today on infrastructure, housing, social services and other public services are exacerbated by urban growth and providing equitable access. However, international and national migration policies are often implemented without local input or control. Given this, balancing economic growth, environmental conservation and social progress is more critical than ever. And, I’d argue, is absolutely necessary to ensure that cities are sustainable and resilient. We can and must enact policies, propose urban designs and build neighborhoods and cities that meet these objectives. The Rockefeller Foundation has defined 5 characteristics of resilient systems that can provide lessons for cities facing social cohesion challenges. They are: 1. Aware – knowing strengths and assets, liabilities and vulnerabilities, and threats and risks. Constantly assessing the social cohesion of a city can be both responsive and preventative. It requires methods of sensing and information-gathering, including robust feedback loops that could take the form of community meetings or monitoring systems that are accessible to the variety of people living and working in the city. Today’s technology and social media provide a multitude of opportunities as well as challenges for keeping city leaders, residents and visitors aware and actively engaged. Being mindful, tolerant and embracing of differences in language, culture, religion, custom and attitude can enhance urban resiliency. 2. Diverse – Although in this case, the intention is a surplus of capacity, I’d argue that cities can and must draw upon the range of capabilities of its people. Finding locations and vehicles to enhance diversity will provide both short-term and long-term benefits. 3. Self-Regulating – Here, it is critically important that people behave and interact in ways to continue functioning to the city’s purpose, dealing with anomalous situations and interferences without extreme malfunction, collapse or disruptions. True social resilience strives for cities where people can withstand disruptions or crises because there’s a common level of respect as well as a welcoming for diverse populations. 4. Integrated – Having the ability to bring together disparate thoughts and elements into cohesive solutions and actions is key. Sharing information across neighborhoods or social strata, collaboratively developing ideas and solutions, and communicating transparently with involved or affected people are three central tenets of social resiliency, which require feedback loops to be truly effective. And, 5. Adaptive – The capacity to adjust to changing circumstances, especially as a result of transnational or internal migration, by developing plans, taking actions or modifying behaviors will ensure that cities are better able to withstand and recover from a disruption. Flexibility is also key here, with wise city leaders applying existing resources to new purposes. The Rockefeller Foundation holds that humans are not born with resilience – that we learn, adapt and improve upon it. Whether it is nature or nurture, we know that social resilience is both desired and necessary to enhance our economy and environment. It is clear that public debate here in America and around the world has focused on economic and environmental sustainability. However, the cultural and ethnic dimensions must also be taken into consideration, to advance social equity and the future resiliency of cities and towns. Policies and urban designs that manage diversity and promote social cohesion among residents and visitors must be advanced by mayors and others at the local level to make cities more vibrant. Creating a common space for this discussion as well as ensuring that all peoples are represented in the dialogue and are shareholders, not just stakeholders in the conversation, should be the mission of mayors. The 100 Resilient Cities Initiative, led by the Rockefeller Foundation, provides an interesting test for resiliency. Whether it becomes the Agora many hope for remains to be seen. That being the case, it is both informative and encouraging to see this level of exploration. I’m proud that the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization is working to promote a better understanding of the role of sustainable urbanization and resilient design in the planning of our cities. One year ago, we organized a conference here at the United Nations on resilient design. While most of the conversation focused on responses to natural disasters, we recognize that social resiliency is key to a sustainable future. We look forward to collaborating on initiatives that advance economic, environmental and social sustainability and resiliency, and are committed to making Habitat III a clarion call for these critical goals. We join Dr. Joan Clos and others who advocate changes to our physical environment to advance this sustainability and resiliency. We are committed to bringing together different shareholders for exchanges of innovative policies and best practices applicable to both developed and developing regions of the world. Our objective is to establish a global conversation on sustainable urbanization, embracing all sectors of society. One actionable step worth considering is the creation of a Mayors’ Academy on Resilient and Sustainable Habitats. MARSH would bring urban leaders together with actual case studies from their cities to find ways through physical design and policy revisions to improve their cities. Designing spaces that enhance social resiliency would benefit all, especially those who are often not considered in the planning of infrastructure and communities. And, the establishment of a network of educated and engaged mayors on the benefits of resilient design would have long-lasting effects. On this two year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, architecture students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology continue to investigate ways to address economic, environmental and social resiliency. Today’s session reminds me that our work continues with renewed purpose. To conclude, I believe that diversity is economically, environmentally and socially resilient. The challenge is for mayors and other local leaders to take ownership and enact policies, programs and designs that address this resiliency. Thank you.  

Two Years Later -- Lessons and Opportunities in a Post-Sandy World: N.J. Mayor's Summit on Resilient Design

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NJIT's Center for Resilient Design, in cooperation with the AIA Regional Recovery Working Group and NJ State League of Municipalities, hosted a summit on the two year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy to convene N.J. Mayors and other public officials, design professionals, and others to address lessons and opportunities following the worst natural disaster in New Jersey history.

Through a series of presentations and frank discussions, local officials brought actual challenges to the table and jointly explored opportunities to recover and rebuild in a more resilient manner. The Summit Agenda focused on Resources, Strategies, and Solutions. Some mayors sent key staff to focus on implementation.

NJIT College of Architecture and Design faculty Georgeen Theodore, Susan Bristol, Matt Burgermaster, and Keith Krumwiede presented resilient designs of buildings, infrastructure, and communities, prompting responses and engagement by local, State, and federal officials. This free event connected mayors and design professionals seeking solutions.

Outcomes included identification of existing and potential funding, technical expertise, and legal and regulatory changes to make communities more resilient. Mayors gained tools necessary to make their communities more resilient.

Sponsored by NJIT's Center for Resilient Design, AIA Regional Recovery Working Group, and the N.J. State League of Municipalities.

NJIT's Alternative Spring Break

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      NJIT Alternative Spring Break

In early 2013, the Center for Resilient Design initiated the NJIT “Alternative Spring Break.” More than 300 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends undertook volunteer work from Newark to the Jersey shore, cleaning up devastated areas and helping towns rebuild resiliently. Students worked on removing debris from beaches and parks, removing floors and wallboard, replacing floors and walls, painting and carpentry, stocking and distributing food and clothing, compiling information on areas affected by Sandy, and doing other work to help communities recover and rebuild. The highly successful program was implemented again in 2014.

For a playlist of NJIT's Alternative Spring Break videos, visit:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu2A4jllfy5j-oLz97ExJ9z5C3Ahk  
 
See Alternative Spring Break 2014 for more information about the Center's 2014 activities.
NJIT Alternative Spring Break
 

Resilient Design: Prevention & Recovery (Selected Resources)

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This guide introduces materials to support the Resilient Design program and research activities of the Center for Resilient Design @NJIT. This guide has been compiled to share the latest data, maps, and other information across a number of organization platforms in order to provide a service to potential users. http://researchguides.njit.edu/resilientdesign    

World Urban Forum 7

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At the World Urban Forum 7  in Medellin, Colombia, the Center was represented by CoAD Dean Urs Gauchat and then Center Director Tom Dallessio. In a session on April 7th organized by the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, Dean Gauchat moderated a panel on Smart Cities and Director Dallessio served as a panelist. The Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization represents a collaboration with the UN, professional, academic, and other institutions organized to promote frameworks for sustainable development and exchanges of best practices with a new found optimism about our urban future. The Consortium is committed to support the UN Habitat Agenda and Goals 7 and 8 of the Millennium Development Goals through bringing together the different stakeholders of UN member countries for conferences and dissemination of innovative policies and solutions applicable to both developing and developed regions of the world. Its programs are meant to appeal to a broad audience that includes central and local governmental authorities, NGOs, planning and design professionals, academicians, the private sector, students, and the general public. SMART CITIES Announcement Final JM Smart Cities Introduction Urs slides Smart City_ Singapore SMART CITIES  

Three NJIT Officials Address the United Nations

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Three NJIT officials addressed the United Nations Friday, participating in an international conference about how cities can use resilient design to prepare for natural disasters. The United Nations is establishing policies on resilient design -- design that emphasizes stronger building methods -- and the addresses by NJIT’s Joel Bloom, Urs Gauchat and Thomas Dallessio will have an influence on the formulation of that policy. Their remarks will become part of the United Nation’s proceedings and help it establish international policies relating to resilient design, housing and infrastructure. The conference, titled “Resilient Design for Sustainable Urbanization,” was held as part of and in tribute to World Habitat Day, where cities around the world organized conferences addressing how they can improve transportation during disasters. It was held in the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council and attended by 400 people. The conference was organized by UN-Habitat, the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, AIA-NY and the Center for Resilient Design at NJIT. The conference was divided into two panels, the first of which, “To Build or Not to Build,” was moderated by Gauchat, Dean of the College of Architecture and Design; President Bloom later talked about the resilient design efforts at NJIT; and Dallessio, director of NJIT’s Center for Resilient Design, introduced the afternoon’s panel discussion on how resilient design can build sustainable communities and enhance urban mobility.

NJIT Center Takes the World Stage

The Center for Resilient Design, a co-sponsor of the conference, promotes innovation in storm-resistant building. It has also helped various communities in New Jersey rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Though just a year old, the center is already getting national and international recognition. Over the last year, teams of NJIT students and faculty have fanned out across the metro region, using their technical and design skills to help communities hurt by Sandy. That’s why the center was invited to co-sponsor and participate in a major international conference at the U.N. “To be invited to address the United Nations is a great honor for our center and validates what we are doing,” says Dellassio. “It also puts New Jersey and resilient design on the world stage.” The conference was attended by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary of the United Nations, and John Ashe, President of the U.N. General Assembly, who participated in the panel discussions. They were joined by experts from national and local governments, nonprofit groups and institutes as well as academia and industry, all of whom presented case studies on how cities can use resilient design to prepare for natural disasters.

Do We Have the Political Will to Rebuild?

Dean Gauchat, the first NJIT representative to speak, moderated a four-person panel. In his introductory remarks, Gauchat summarized the effects of global warming and then raised a series of questions for the panel and the audience. “Is it possible to retreat from all disaster-prone areas?” he asked. “And can major coastal cities retreat? Are there safer areas to move to that are not already populated? And most importantly, can long-term solutions to achieve more resilience be reconciled with the typical short-term thinking of politics and business?” After each of the panelists spoke, Gauchat summed up by stressing that while humanity has the technical knowledge to rebuild resiliently, what it lacks is a collective political will. “Resilient design is a fascinating topic,” said Gauchat.  “We know where to do it, we know how to do it, but ultimately it comes down to political will.    I am optimistic because the United Nations is all about collaboration. And I think our talks today will help us find and implement resilient design solutions.”

President Bloom Praises the Center

During lunch, President Bloom gave his address in the U.N.’s South Dining Room.  He gave an overview of NJIT, explaining why a nationally-ranked research university, located in Newark, is ideally suited to help the metro region rebuild. And he praised the Center for Resilient Design, where architects, designers, planners and other construction experts have collaborated to help the region recover and to prepare for other disasters spurred by rising sea levels. “I was personally affected by the storm,” said Bloom, “my house was destroyed by Sandy and was recently rebuilt. So I appreciate the quick action taken by the Center for Resilient Design, which just a few weeks after the storm had students and faculty in flooded areas, assessing the damage and thinking up resilient ways to rebuild homes and businesses.”

Detailing the Success of the Center

In the afternoon session, Dallessio, the director of the center, introduced the second panel of experts and framed the discussion. In his remarks, he said the center was created with the express purpose to help residents, businesses and communities recover from and anticipate future natural disasters. In one instance, he said, the center asked NJIT students and faculty to donate more than 3,500 hours of time volunteering to help communities from Newark to Beach Haven recover from Sandy.  Professors and students provided communities with 2-D, 3-D and 4-D designs for their homes and businesses. And 600 students also volunteered to give up their spring break, and to spend it instead working in New Jersey to help communities recover from the storm. “The challenges of resilient design for sustainable urbanization are varied and many,” said Dallessio. “Sustainable urban mobility will require us to be, as we like to say in New Jersey, stronger than the storm.  And in the end, innovation and best practices can and must be shared, making us smarter than the storm.”

By Robert Florida

Three NJIT Officials Address the United Nations

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Three NJIT officials addressed the United Nations Friday, participating in an international conference about how cities can use resilient design to prepare for natural disasters. The United Nations is establishing policies on resilient design -- design that emphasizes stronger building methods -- and the addresses by NJIT’s Joel Bloom, Urs Gauchat and Thomas Dallessio will have an influence on the formulation of that policy. Their remarks will become part of the United Nation’s proceedings and help it establish international policies relating to resilient design, housing and infrastructure. The conference, titled “Resilient Design for Sustainable Urbanization,” was held as part of and in tribute to World Habitat Day, where cities around the world organized conferences addressing how they can improve transportation during disasters. It was held in the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council and attended by 400 people. The conference was organized by UN-Habitat, the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, AIA-NY and the Center for Resilient Design at NJIT. The conference was divided into two panels, the first of which, “To Build or Not to Build,” was moderated by Gauchat, Dean of the College of Architecture and Design; President Bloom later talked about the resilient design efforts at NJIT; and Dallessio, director of NJIT’s Center for Resilient Design, introduced the afternoon’s panel discussion on how resilient design can build sustainable communities and enhance urban mobility.

NJIT Center Takes the World Stage

The Center for Resilient Design, a co-sponsor of the conference, promotes innovation in storm-resistant building. It has also helped various communities in New Jersey rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Though just a year old, the center is already getting national and international recognition. Over the last year, teams of NJIT students and faculty have fanned out across the metro region, using their technical and design skills to help communities hurt by Sandy. That’s why the center was invited to co-sponsor and participate in a major international conference at the U.N. “To be invited to address the United Nations is a great honor for our center and validates what we are doing,” says Dellassio. “It also puts New Jersey and resilient design on the world stage.” The conference was attended by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary of the United Nations, and John Ashe, President of the U.N. General Assembly, who participated in the panel discussions. They were joined by experts from national and local governments, nonprofit groups and institutes as well as academia and industry, all of whom presented case studies on how cities can use resilient design to prepare for natural disasters.

Do We Have the Political Will to Rebuild?

Dean Gauchat, the first NJIT representative to speak, moderated a four-person panel. In his introductory remarks, Gauchat summarized the effects of global warming and then raised a series of questions for the panel and the audience. “Is it possible to retreat from all disaster-prone areas?” he asked. “And can major coastal cities retreat? Are there safer areas to move to that are not already populated? And most importantly, can long-term solutions to achieve more resilience be reconciled with the typical short-term thinking of politics and business?” After each of the panelists spoke, Gauchat summed up by stressing that while humanity has the technical knowledge to rebuild resiliently, what it lacks is a collective political will. “Resilient design is a fascinating topic,” said Gauchat.  “We know where to do it, we know how to do it, but ultimately it comes down to political will.    I am optimistic because the United Nations is all about collaboration. And I think our talks today will help us find and implement resilient design solutions.”

President Bloom Praises the Center

During lunch, President Bloom gave his address in the U.N.’s South Dining Room.  He gave an overview of NJIT, explaining why a nationally-ranked research university, located in Newark, is ideally suited to help the metro region rebuild. And he praised the Center for Resilient Design, where architects, designers, planners and other construction experts have collaborated to help the region recover and to prepare for other disasters spurred by rising sea levels. “I was personally affected by the storm,” said Bloom, “my house was destroyed by Sandy and was recently rebuilt. So I appreciate the quick action taken by the Center for Resilient Design, which just a few weeks after the storm had students and faculty in flooded areas, assessing the damage and thinking up resilient ways to rebuild homes and businesses.”

Detailing the Success of the Center

In the afternoon session, Dallessio, the director of the center, introduced the second panel of experts and framed the discussion. In his remarks, he said the center was created with the express purpose to help residents, businesses and communities recover from and anticipate future natural disasters. In one instance, he said, the center asked NJIT students and faculty to donate more than 3,500 hours of time volunteering to help communities from Newark to Beach Haven recover from Sandy.  Professors and students provided communities with 2-D, 3-D and 4-D designs for their homes and businesses. And 600 students also volunteered to give up their spring break, and to spend it instead working in New Jersey to help communities recover from the storm. “The challenges of resilient design for sustainable urbanization are varied and many,” said Dallessio. “Sustainable urban mobility will require us to be, as we like to say in New Jersey, stronger than the storm.  And in the end, innovation and best practices can and must be shared, making us smarter than the storm.”

By Robert Florida

NJIT’s Matt Burgermaster wins 2013 Builder’s Choice Custom Home Design Award

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CoAD Assistant Professor Matt Burgermaster has won a 2013 Builder’s Choice Custom Home Design Award for his project “Ice Cycle House,” a sustainable “pre-fab” house located in Buffalo, New York. This design features an innovative combination of digital fabrication processes, prefabricated components, and low-cost materials within an exterior envelope solution that works with, instead of against, extreme snow loads and the natural snowmelt cycle by creatively integrating them into the building’s multifaceted performance of insulation and drainage functions. The system prototype was created in response to the need for new resilient design and construction solutions applicable to extreme climatic environments and weather situations. The Builder’s Choice Custom Home Design Awards is a national awards competition that honors housing projects for their excellence in both design and construction, and is judged by leading professionals from the architecture and building industries. This award was presented at the “Designing for Resilience” 2013 Reinvention Symposium and is published in the October issue of BUILDER, the magazine of the National Association of Home Builders. Selected out of over 630 entries, Burgermaster shares award honors in the “On The Boards” category with NADAAA/Nader Tehrani. The “Ice Cycle House” previously received awards in national design competitions from professional and academic organizations alike, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), and the Journal of Architecture Education (JAE).

Resilient Design on the UN Agenda As It Prepares for Climate Change

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By Alex Wilson The panel I was on at the United Nations World Habitat Day conference, “Resilient Design for Sustainable Urbanization.” Wrapping up an intense month of travel, I’m just back from New York City, where I spoke last Friday, October 4, 2013, at the UN World Habitat Day conference, Resilient Design for Sustainable Urbanism.” The event was cosponsored by the Consortium for Sustainable UrbanismAIA New York, and the NJIT Center for Resilient Design. It was an amazing opportunity to see the United Nations; I think I was last there over 40 years ago. The UN Headquarters Complex is going through a major $2 billion facelift that includes many exciting green features that are supposed to achieve 50% energy savings, 40% water savings, and a 45% reduction in the carbon footprint…. But that’s not the focus of this column. UN-Habitat and resilience The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, is a UN agency focused on human settlements. It was launched in 1978 following a meeting in Vancouver known as Habitat I, and it is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. A follow-up conference, Habitat II, was held in Istanbul, Turkey in 1996, and Habitat III is planned for 2016. The conference last week was one of a number of events leading up to Habitat 3, and it reflected a growing interest by the UN in climate change, rising sea levels, and the impact these changes will have on urbanization. The day started off with an all-star cast: UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon from South Korea opened up the program and described the UN’s deeply held concerns about climate change and commitment to both sustainability and resilience. Ki-moon was followed by John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, president of the UN General Assembly; Néstor Osorio, the Columbian Representative to the UN and president of the UN Economic and Social Council; and Dr. Joan Clos of Spain, the Executive Director of UN-Habitat. Shaun Donovan, the Secretary of HUD in the U.S. and chair of the federal Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, was supposed to deliver the keynote, but could not due to the Federal Government shutdown. (How embarrassing to see such a poignant display of American dysfunctionalism on the international stage!) In his place was Henk Ovink, the former director general for Spatial Planning and Water Affairs for the Netherlands—and currently on loan to the U.S. for the above-mentioned task force. Morning and afternoon panels dug more deeply into various aspects of resilient design. In the morning panel I described how our vulnerabilities extend well beyond sea level rise and coastal flooding to such issues as more intense storms, inland flooding of valleys (as we saw with Tropical Storm Irene here in Vermont), tornados, ice and snow storms, drought, wildfire, solar flares, and such anthropogenic issues as terrorism and political upheaval. I described a number of secondary impacts of these events, including prolonged power outages, interruptions in gasoline supply, or an ability to pump gasoline. Finally, I presented the Resilient Design Principles that have recently been published by the Resilient Design Institute. Solutions elusive While all of us on the podium did a reasonable job articulating the challenges we face from sea level rise and climate change, effective solutions remain elusive. Some solutions were offered, surprisingly, by Dawn Zimmer, the mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. I say “surprisingly,” because I remember the photo of perhaps 100 taxis submerged by Sandy’s storm surge. I had been under the impression that Hoboken was far less prepared for flooding than New York, where Mayor Bloomberg has been at the forefront of disaster preparedness. But she told us of some amazing planning underway in the City, such as efforts to provide for safe bicycle commuting through the Lincoln Tunnel and other strategies to get cars off the streets. Henk Ovink noted that simply building things back to what they had been in the aftermath of storms like Sandy or Katrina is a lost opportunity. We need to learn from these disasters and respond appropriately. “Let the past be an inspiration for the future,” he told us in the afternoon. One of the most inspiring presentations was by Nancy Kete, the managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation, which just announced a $100 million program to support 100 cities around the world in developing and implementing plans for urban resilience over the next three years. The foundation will provide technical support and financial resources in this remarkable program. The full presentations from the conference are available online on the NJIT Center for Resilient Design in three video segments. There is much to do in addressing the multiple challenges of rising seas, more intense storms, and other impacts of climate change. But the UN’s leadership with climate change, not only with science (see the just released 5th Assessment Report from the International Panel on Climate Change), but also initiatives to do something about these challenges, gives me hope that progress can be made. Sequestered in the U.S., where Fox News does a highly successful job at foisting its fringe perspectives on politicians and a significant portion of the public, one can lose sight of just how seriously most of the rest of the world is taking climate change.

Syllabus: Better Boroughs, Resilient Regions – Spring 2013

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MIP 602 / ARCH 464: Better Boroughs, Resilient Regions – Syllabus Spring 2013 Mondays 1:00-5:45; Wednesday 8:30-11:25; Thursday 2:30-6:20 Weston Hall Faculty: Georgeen Theodore, School of Architecture (georgeen@interboropartners.com) Room 765 Weston Hall Office hours: by appointment Type of Course: Interdisciplinary studio of 5 credit hours/11.5 contact hours Studio criticism format 10 students expected Course Overview: The subject of this studio is the rebuilding of New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The hurricane, which made landfall near Atlantic City on October 29, 2012, wreaked havoc, and the damage to shoreline and waterfront communities was devastating. Housing, schools, roads, and recreational landscapes were wiped away by winds and rising tides. The scope of rebuilding is overwhelming, and most post-disaster efforts are local, and as a matter of necessity, focused on immediate needs. In contrast to the “let’s rebuild now!” mantra that is being repeated and organized on a “town-by-town” basis, this studio will work to examine the larger, regional design opportunities confronting the counties of Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Atlantic, and Ocean, and seek ways to interlink these opportunities with local initiatives. Working “on the ground” with representatives of the Regional Catastrophic Planning Team (NY-NJ-CT-PA), the Department of Homeland Security, Architecture for Humanity, FEMA, and with local community members, the studio will develop designs that purposefully negotiate between the urgent need for visionary, large-scale planning and demands to restore what was there. While the scope and ambition of the studio is clearly regional in its focus, students will be encouraged to develop discrete architectural proposals that engage issues of infrastructure and landscape, such as the redesign of seawalls, boardwalks, bridges and coastal barriers, as well as resilient housing. Given that preliminary estimates indicate a minimum ten year rebuilding effort, this studio seeks to help students develop expertise in an area that will drive the design and construction industry in New Jersey for the foreseeable future. The course will be organized in two phases: • 5X5 Investigations • Resiliency Proposals In the first, five-week phase, 5X5 Investigations, students will develop a set of projective illustrations that investigate the circumstances that led to wide-scale damage, assess post-Sandy conditions, and identify opportunities for future resiliency building. During this phase, the studio will work primarily at two scales: the scale of the state of New Jersey and at the scale of the borough or township. The studio will work collaboratively at the state scale, and individually at the borough scale. Each student will focus on different borough selected from the studio’s list of towns severely impacted by the storm. (See the attached list of selected boroughs.) Using his or her work from the first phase as a base, in the second phase Resiliency Proposals, each student will develop a resiliency proposal for his or her respective borough. Studio participants will have the freedom to develop their own project’s direction in consultation with the instructor, although all projects must perform in a way that (1) responds to short-term needs and (2) provides a long-term vision for improving the place. Emphasis will be on design thinking that negotiates local community needs with visionary regional strategies. The work of the studio will be collaboratively developed into a publication by semester’s end. (read more)   rollercoaster

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