The final proposals of the 10 shortlisted Rebuild by Design teams

The ten Rebuild by Design finalist teams spent the past eight months doing intensive research and engaging with local communities to find local and resilient solutions to rebuild the Eastern Seaboard cities affected by Hurricane Sandy.

BIG, WXY + West 8, OMA, Sasaki Associates, Interboro Partners, and notable universities are only a few of the multidisciplinary team leaders in this global group of finalists.

Each team presented their final proposals to the public at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ late last week. People at the event were able to provide feedback to the teams as well as connect with members from local and neighboring communities in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

Secretary Shaun Donovan of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will announce the winning projects later this spring.

While we wait for the winning results, check out the final proposals below.

BIG U
by the BIG team
Location: New York, New York

Day In the Life BIG-Team from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "The Big U is a protective system around Manhattan, driven by the needs and concerns of its communities. Stretching from West 57th street south to The Battery and up to East 42th street, the Big U protects 10 continuous miles of low-lying geography that comprise an incredibly dense, vibrant, and vulnerable urban area. The proposed system not only shields the city against floods and stormwater; it provides social and environmental benefits to the community, and an improved public realm."

For full proposal details, click here.

The Commercial Corridor Resiliency Project
by HR&A Advisors, Inc. with Cooper, Robertson & Partners
Location: Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York; Far Rockaway, Queens, New York; Asbury Park, New Jersey

HR&A w CRP from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "he HR&A/Cooper Robertson team has created innovative concepts to enhance the resiliency and economic vitality of the Sandy-affected region’s coastal commercial corridors and the neighborhoods that surround them. Retail is the lifeblood of communities, providing jobs, critical goods and services, and neighborhood gathering places. Throughout the region, retailers and their inventory, primarily located on the ground floor and basement of buildings, are particularly vulnerable to storm impacts."

For full proposal details, click here.

Living with the Bay: A Comprehensive Regional Resiliency Plan for Nassau County’s South Shore
by the Interboro team
Location: Long Island, New York

Interboro Final from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "How do we keep Long Islanders safe in the face of future extreme weather events and sea-level rise? How do we ensure that the next big storm won’t be as devastating to the region as Sandy? And what can we do to improve the water quality and quality of life in the region? What can we do to make “bay life” safer, healthier, more fun, and more accessible?"

For full proposal details, click here.

New Meadowlands: Productive City + Regional Park
by MIT CAU + ZUS + URBANISTEN
Location: The Meadowlands, New Jersey
 

MIT-ZUS-Urbanisten New Meadowlands from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "The New Meadowlands project articulates an integrated vision for protecting, connecting, and growing this critical asset to both New Jersey and the metro­politan area of New York. Integrating transportation, ecology, and development, the project transforms the Meadowlands basin to address a wide spectrum of risks, while providing civic amenities and creating opportunities for new redevelopment."

For full project details, click here.

Resist, Delay, Store, Discharge: A Comprehensive Strategy for Hoboken
by OMA
Location: Hoboken, New Jersey

OMA from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken are susceptible to both flash flood and storm surge. As integrated urban environments, discreet one-house-at-a-time solutions do not make sense. What is required is a comprehensive approach that acknowledges the density and complexity of the context, galvanizes a diverse community of beneficiaries, and defends the entire city, its assets and citizens. Our comprehensive urban water strategy deploys programmed hard infrastructure and soft landscape for coastal defense (resist); policy recommendations, guidelines, and urban infrastructure to slow rainwater runoff (delay); a circuit of interconnected green infrastructure to store and direct excess rainwater (store); and water pumps and alternative routes to support drainage (discharge)."

For full project details, click here.

Hunts Point Lifelines
by PennDesign/OLIN
Location: Hunts Point, Bronx, NY

HUNTS POINT LIFELINES Livelihoods from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "Hunts Point is the hub of the region’s food supply chain and a local living-wage employment center in the poorest Congressional district in the country. Despite severe environmental and economic hardship, Hunts Point also has significant capacity for demonstrating local, community-driven resilience building. An investment in resilience at Hunts Point will be felt throughout the region, providing food security during crisis and serving as a model for working waterfronts located in flood plains everywhere."

For full project details, click here.

RESILIENCE + THE BEACH
by Sasaki/Rutgers/Arup
Location: Jersey Shore, NJ

Project summary: "Our team’s research and design strategies focus on the value of “the beach,” a place of special significance to memory, state and local economies, and a vital component of coastal ecosystems. New Jersey’s northern shore is an ideal place to study the identity and function of the beach, since it includes the three coastal typologies found across the eastern seaboard of the United States: Barrier Island, Headlands, and Inland Bay. Over the past century, Jersey Shore tourism has evolved to play a significant role in the state’s economy and in regional cultural identity. Yet, tourism practices have also impacted the ecology and resiliency of the beach and shore communities."

For full project details, click here.

LIVING BREAKWATERS
by SCAPE / Landscape Architecture
Location: Staten Island, New York

SCAPE Living Breakwaters from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "The Living Breakwaters project reduces risk, revives ecologies, and connects educators to the shoreline, inspiring a new generation of harbor stewards and a more resilient region over time.  Staten Island sits at the mouth of the New York Bight, and is vulnerable to wave action and erosion. Rather than create a wall between people and water, our project embraces the water, increases awareness of risk, and steps down that risk with a necklace of breakwaters to buffer against wave damage, flooding and erosion. We have designed 'reef street' micro-pockets of habitat complexity to host finfish, shellfish, and lobsters, and also modeled the breakwater system at a macro scale to understand how and where they can most effectively protect communities. This living infrastructure will be paired with social resiliency frameworks in adjacent neighborhoods. Through the Billion Oyster Project and an associated network of programmed water hubs, local schools will be empowered with science, recreation, education, and access."

For full project details, click here.

Resilient Bridgeport
by WB unabridged with Yale ARCADIS
Location: Bridgeport, Connecticut

Project summary: "Resilient Bridgeport is a prototype for the region’s coastal cities that consists of a resilience framework and specific design proposals. It focuses on how to protect Bridgeport against climate change and flooding caused by storm surge and rainfall, while stimulating environmental restoration, economic development, and neighborhood revitalization.  The resilience framework is a set of integrated coastal, urban, and riparian design strategies and planning principles. It takes into account short-term and long-term trends, and provides a comprehensive approach to infrastructure planning and risk management."

For full project details, click here.

Blue Dunes – The Future of Coastal Protection
by WXY/West 8
Location: Offshore New York and New Jersey

RBD FINAL ADD from Rebuild by Design on Vimeo.

Project summary: "Storms of the future are likely to be more intense and frequent, and they certainly will be more costly. While we cannot predict when the next storm will come or what it will look like, we are learning about how oceans behave, in terms of their physical dynamics (currents and waves), the habitats they support, and the interrelationship between the dynamics, geomorphology and habitats. We asked ourselves “if we had planned and designed our coasts with coastal processes in mind, would there have been a way to deflect to storm driven surges with a set of barrier islands located offshore in the coastal waters?“ The results demonstrated potential for saving lives and billions of dollars across the region. The resulting proposal to create an offshore barrier island chain centered on the NY/NJ harbor is called “The Blue Dunes” – blue indicating their position in the open ocean, and dunes for the natural landforms they mimic.  Today this proposal stands at a crossroads – we have discovered this potential for the future of coastal protection, but much work needs to be done."

For full project details, click here.

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You can check out previous Rebuild by Design articles here.