NYC Requests Bold Ideas and Creative Solutions for Resilient Waterfront Development

Aerial view of Averne-East parcel
(source: Department of Housing Preservation and Development)

To engage best practices and innovating thinking from around the world, the city has invited designers and urban planners to submit plans for an 80-acre site in Far Rockaway, Queens. The FAR ROC [For a Resilient Rockaway] competition entries will provide inventive solutions to be applied directly in the Rockaways, as well as new ideas for other at-risk waterfront neighborhoods throughout the city.

Hurricane Sandy demonstrated the need for new ideas about development along NYC’s vulnerable coastline. The damage to buildings, beaches, and utility systems on the Rockaway Peninsula calls for a difficult discussion as to whether certain areas should be “rebuilt, maintained and defended, or simply abandoned.” Challenges posed by climate change, sea level rise, and increasingly frequent major storm events cannot be resolved by designers and planners alone, but new development strategies, like the ones to be tested in the Rockaways, can provide a laboratory to solicit the most innovative ideas. Submissions are required to consider the environmental and physical challenges of the at-risk site as well as the economic development, housing, and infrastructure needs of the area.

The Phase I submission deadline is June 14, 2013. The competition is organized by city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, L+M Development Partners, the Bluestone Organization, Enterprise Community Partners, Triangle Equities, and the AIA NY.

Scotland’s Innovative Plans for “Climate Change Parks”

Across the pond, the nonprofit organization greenspace scotland, in partnership with Scottish National Heritage, has created a fascinating new e-resource called  “Creating Climate Change Parks.” The resource provides important design guidance for both the retro-fitting of older parks with climate change-friendly updates, such as tree planting schemes, green roofs and water management techniques, as well as guidelines for newly designed parks. This important initiative, although based in Scotland, is carving out an essential and potentially universal role for 21st century parks as leaders in the field of sustainable design.

Learn more about this exciting project on greenspace scotland’s website.

(Via CSPA)