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November 14, 2023Sandy + 10: Resilience in the Rockaways
Hurricane Strong House by +LAB ArchitectsIn 2012, Superstorm Sandy devastated waterfront neighborhoods including the Rockaways in Queens. DfRR held a day-long program to look at how agencies, communities and designers, including AIA members, have improved resilience strategies in the ten years since, as well as reviewing new projects currently being put in place.
We boarded the Rockaway ferry in Manhattan and visited the following sites:
- Hurricane Strong House at Breezy Point by +LAB Architects
- Rockaway Boardwalk Restoration by Sage & Coombe Architects
- Rockaway Boardwalks Reconstruction by WXY architecture + urban design
- NYC Parks Beach Restoration Modules by Garrison Architects
- Arverne View by OCV Architects and Local Office Landscape Architecture
- West Pond Living Shoreline Project at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Please watch the 4 minute video here to see the highlights of our tour!
Design for Risk and Reconstruction
The Design for Risk and Reconstruction Committee (DfRR) harnesses the design community's expertise to address disaster mitigation and adaptation in situations caused by major events that threaten people in the built environment, such as major storms, extreme heat, climate change, sea-level rise, terrorist attacks, etc. Our mission is to foster awareness within the profession and the public of the necessity of anticipating risk at multiple scales, from a single building to comprehensive regional planning. Our goals: To formulate programs that engage the profession, stakeholders (public), and policymakers in important conversations around these issues; To develop appropriate professional-public partnerships to bring leaders and innovators together; To examine the design sequence to address mitigating natural and human-made disasters, developing disaster preparedness scenarios, mobilizing disaster relief response and recovery, and planning and executing reconstruction projects; To improve the designed environment to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its inhabitants—functionally, technically, economically, and aesthetically. Illya Azaroff, FAIA, and Lance Jay Brown, FAIA founded DfRR in recognition of the growing need to address the increasing vulnerabilities that communities face across the world. The Board of the AIA New York Chapter formally established DfRR on May 17, 2011, and sanctioned the committee name on June 21, 2011. Meetings typically occur at 6:30 pm on the second Wednesday of each month.