by Melinda Hanson
On October 28th, 2013—one year after Superstorm Sandy—ten design teams unveiled 41 design ideas aimed at strengthening resilience in the Sandy-effected region. Two events—one in Manhattan and one in Newark, New Jersey—attracted more than one thousand community members, designers, activists, and other stakeholders.
The ten teams involved that day are all part of Rebuild by Design, a multi- phase design competition realized by members of President Obama’s Sandy Task Force and directed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sandy was no ordinary storm, and fittingly, Rebuild by Design is no ordinary design competition. Indeed, the only competitive part was phase one: the selection process.
Rebuild by Design sets itself apart from your typical development request. Rather than responding to a “request for proposal,” teams
wishing to participate in Rebuild by Design responded to a “request for qualifications.” To qualify, team leaders had to pull together an interdisciplinary group drawing upon diverse backgrounds and experience. In August, ten teams were chosen from almost 150 applications. One team is co-lead by New York- based architecture firm, WXY and Dutch landscape architects West 8, and includes artist Mary Edna Fraser, graphic designer Yeju Choi, and scientist Orin Pilkey. Another is Interboro architects and Apex consulting, and includes the Center for Urban Pedagogy, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and the graphic design firm, Project Projects.
Since mid-August, NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge (IPK) has led team members through a graduate crash course of Sandy-affected regions. IPK is organizing seminars, taking teams on site visits around the Sandy- affected region, and introducing them to community members, policy-
makers, and experts from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Asbury Park, New Jersey, and everywhere in between. These experiences informed the design ideas that were unveiled in late October.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR REBUILD BY DESIGN?
Phase three of Rebuild by Design runs from November 2013 to March of next year. On November 13th, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the winning design idea for each team. Taken together, the selected designs span the region and address conditions specific to a variety of place types. One team, led by Scape Landscape architects will focus on Staten Island and Raritan Bay, where the team will work to create a living shoreline to attenuate waves and protect local neighborhoods, while at the same time, restoring habitat. Another team, led by OMA, will develop a comprehensive plan to better protect Hoboken from future floods while at the same time creating additional public space.
The hope is that Rebuild by Design will result in a comprehensive regional plan for the entire Sandy-affected area. While design proposals are location specific, they were selected because they have the potential to be replicated in other parts of the region. Designs will ultimately be piloted on select sites throughout the region—they will be funded through to implementation. Demonstrating success is a key part of the Rebuild by Design process; the resilience solutions that surface must have an adaptation feature to transfer to other vulnerable communities.
“A year ago, when Hurricane Sandy devastated communities in the region, we were reminded of the importance that climate change will play in all development and planning for our communities to become more
resilient and sustainable,” Secretary Donovan said during a talk about Rebuild by Design. The competition has the potential to catalyze a shift toward more sustainable and resilient development. To respond to the challenges that climate change brings, Rebuild by Design is a process that reminds us about the importance of collaborative planning.