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CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
DESIGNING FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION
April 5, 2024
Pippa Brashear and Laura Marett
SCAPE
SCAPE is a landscape architecture and urban design practice that designs and advocates for ecologically restorative and socially engaged landscapes, urban environments, and natural infrastructure of the future. Pippa Brashear is a Resilience Principal and Partner within the firm, and Laura Marett is the Director of Landscape Planning. Both are registered as Landscape Architects. Their work focuses on resilience planning and design for climate adaptation with an ecological and people-driven approach in coastal and urban landscapes.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
GOVERNANCE FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION
September 23, 2023
Joan Fitzgerald,
Northeastern University
Dr. Fitzgerald is a Professor of Urban and Public Policy. She focuses on urban climate action and strategies for linking it to equity, economic development, and innovation. Professor Fitzgerald has made foundational contributions to the field, calling for integrated and aggressive public action to address climate change through her published works, as well as her ongoing leadership at the Dukakis Center conducting an assessment for the Boston Foundation’s Boston Climate Progress Report.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
FINANCING CLIMATE ADAPTATION
May 10, 2023
Jesse M. Keenan,
Tulane University
Jesse M. Keenan is the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate within the faculty of the School of Architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Keenan’s teaching and research is centered on how people prepare for and respond to climate impacts in the built environment, including aspects of design, planning, management, policy and finance.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
MODELING HURRICANE IMPACT
April 5, 2024
Kerry Emanuel,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Kerry Emanuel is Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Emanuel has made foundational contributions to the science of tropical cyclones, climate, and links between them, and has been a prominent voice in public debates on climate change, and what we should do about it.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Cutting the Tall Grass
May 27, 2021 at 12:00:00 AM
Sharon Cornelissen
The forthcoming book Cutting the Tall Grass aims to show how decades of neighborhood decline in Brightmoor, Detroit shaped racialized losses and opportunities, hardship and privilege, and trauma and coping, as the devastated neighborhood faces early gentrification. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Detroit's Got Lots
April 29, 2021 at 12:00:00 AM
Ann Salerno
Daniel D'Oca, Faculty Advisor Warrendale—like many of Detroit’s neighborhoods—has a lot of vacant lots. For the community, this state of vacancy can be demoralizing. This project aims to empower and give agency to local teenagers by leveraging those vacant spaces to create a sense of ownership of the neighborhood. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Growing-Up Warrendale
April 1, 2021 at 12:00:00 AM
Ana Cristina
Garcia Daniel D'Oca, Faculty Advisor
The neighborhood of Warrendale in Detroit is transforming into a receiving community for an arriving Arab refugee and immigrant community. This project focuses on the potential of the neighborhood to mediate trauma for children, creating places of physical and emotional safety. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Street Dreams
March 4, 2021 at 12:00:00 AM
Natasha Hicks
Simone Hodgson
Daniel D'Oca, Faculty Advisor This project explores what inclusive commercial corridor revitalization might mean and look like for both the existing predominantly Black community and the incoming immigrant and refugee community in Warrendale, Detroit. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Forward from Woodward
February 4, 2021 at 12:00:00 AM
Jonah Susskind
This thesis project addresses forest management in the context of Detroit and so-called shrinking cities. It positions urban canopy as a driver for urban development. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Freakish Grounds
December 17, 2020 at 12:00:00 AM
Karissa Campos, Hannah Chako
Zoë Holland, Chris Reed, Faculty Advisor
This proposed park is a place where Los Angeles abandons the bucolic aspirations of the past, embraces the freakish reality of the present, and prepares for the urban ecology of the future. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Dynasty
November 19, 2020 at 12:00:00 AM
Yaxuan Liu
Daniel D'Oca, Faculty Advisor
The revival of downtown Los Angeles has exacerbated Chinatown’s affordability problem. This project explores and dramatizes the negotiations between the neighborhood's developers, families, artists, young professionals, and other stakeholders through an experimental board game.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Change the Street, Transform the City
October 22, 2020 at 12:00:00 AM
Yuzhou ‘Andrew’ Peng
Solomon Green-Eames
Andres Sevtsuk, Faculty Advisor
The existing model of Transit Oriented Development in Los Angeles simply places high density housing in proximity to new transit stations. This project proposes building targeted street improvements in existing commercial centers to enable local access to amenities and increase retail density.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Carbon Park
April 23, 2020 at 12:00:00 AM
Augustinas Indrasius
Peteris Lazovskis
Thomas Schaperkotter
This project reimagines how real estate investment may fuel social benefit and ecological sustainability by connecting private investment with public space to seek balance for investors, the downtown Los Angeles community, and California's growing carbon economy.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Four Ecologies 2.0
February 27, 2020 at 12:00:00 AM
Suthata Jiranuntarat
Sonny Meng Qi Xu
Chris Reed, Faculty Advisor
This project reimagines Reyner Banham’s Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, proposing a new language of movement and civic life for Los Angeles. It confronts the city’s aging and underutilized infrastructure and imagines multi-functional, productive, and performative infrastructures and urban realms.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Offcut
February 6, 2020 at 12:00:00 AM
Morgan Starkey
Alexandru Vilcu
Jenny Wu, Faculty Advisor
Dwayne Oyler, Faculty Advisor
This project interrogates the role of architectural detail, examining how these small elements may generate of larger architectural spaces and logics. It poses questions about leveraging the function, misbehavior, and perversion of ornament in architecture.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Collins Reservoir
December 12, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Kent Hipp
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor
Anticipating rising sea levels, this project reimagines Miami Beach’s Collins Canal as a stormwater reservoir. Linking schools, parks, gardens, and memorials, this new space would help to create a continuous public realm and generate new urban form. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Ocean Court
November 21, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Daniel Widis
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor
Decades of commercial development have turned Miami Beach into a rigid urban landscape without many public spaces. This project looks to revitalize a neglected alleyway, turning an artless commercial lane into a functional community and civic space. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Root
November 7, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Adria Boynton
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor What if Miami Beach used salt-tolerant grasses to improve the city’s capacity for water absorption? Taking cues from the ecology of the Everglades, this project imagines a new approach to alleviate flooding. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Flamingo Waterpark
October 24, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Izgi Uygur
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor Sea level rise and associated salinity threatens Miami’s fresh water supply. This project proposes placing elevated cisterns in Flamingo Park above projected flood lines, where they would retain stormwater for irrigation. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Urban Stitch
October 10, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Sam Adkisson
Hiroki Kawashima
Sean Canty, Faculty Advisor Chris Reed, Faculty Advisor Miami’s overall prosperity has failed to cross into the Overtown neighborhood. This project activates the edge between Overtown and Downtown Miami, linking the two with a combination of mixed-use development, affordable housing, and a public park. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Ephemeral Urbanism
October 3, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Ting Liang
Zishen Wen
Sean Canty, Faculty Advisor
Chris Reed, Faculty Advisor
This project re-choreographs the physical fabric of Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, allowing for multiple expressions of identity. It creates an urban setting with embedded possibilities for change, constantly scripting and re-scripting itself. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Food Sociability
June 27, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Evan Shieh
Panharith Ean
Sean Canty, Faculty Advisor Chris Reed, Faculty Advisor How do we design around the sociability of food and small-scale food production in the urban landscape? This project explores new ways of eating, gardening, and living together across three different typological sites. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Hydrological Urbanization
June 20, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Andrew Madl
Charles Waldheim, Faculty Advisor This project proposes a new framework for urbanization in Miami Beach, with a performative city grid informed by changing ecological factors: water level, ocean pH and salinity, and plant community patterns. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Biscayne Baywalk
June 20, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Chris Merritt
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor
This project proposes a new Baywalk along Miami Beach, creating a seamless public realm that links to the city’s pump system to manage storm water quality and protect from storm surges. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Ocean Courtyards
June 20, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Daniel Widis
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor
Decades of commercially-driven development have left Miami Beach devoid of genuine public space. This project works to reclaim the city’s public realm by reviving a neglected interstitial alleyway. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Higher Lanes and Public Planes
June 13, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Myrna Ayoub
Rosetta Elkin, Faculty Advisor As sea level rise threatens Miami’s South Beach, raised infrastructures become increasingly necessary. This project explores potential manifestations for these elevations, aiming to maximize ecological performance and storm water management capacities. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Food System Resilience
June 6, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Davi Parente Schoen
Jesse Keenan, Faculty Advisor Food distribution and processing in Miami are clustered around a number of hubs that are vulnerable to storm surges and sea level rise. To increase the resilience of Miami’s food system, this project suggests centralizing distribution. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Transit-Oriented Hyperdensity
May 30, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Kenner Carmody
Jesse Keenan, Faculty Advisor Using sea level rise projections, this study looks to visualize and understand the required future housing stock needed to accommodate displaced persons from Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood. It proposes high-density development to accommodate for lost urban surface area by year 2100. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Democratizing Tech
May 23, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Sidra Fatima
Stefano Trevisan
Lily Song, Faculty Advisor.
Miami is courting a new generation of tech entrepreneurs with its new Innovation District, a proposed high-density development area close to downtown. To offset gentrification effects and take advantage of incoming job opportunities, this project recommends creating a worker cooperative in Overtown geared towards the needs of the tech industry. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Climate 2050 Justice Divestment
May 23, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Sam Matthew
Jesse Keenan, Faculty Advisor An action-oriented proposal for a more just and sustainable Miami, this project finds that much of Miami-Dade County’s criminal justice infrastructure is at severe risk of flooding. It recommends retreat from the most vulnerable facilities along with investment in spatial programs to reduce incarceration rates. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Types in the Park
May 16, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Boxia Wang
Charles Waldheim, Faculty Advisor Aziz Barbar, Faculty Advisor
Drawing on Miami Beach’s history as a mangrove swamp, this project reintroduces the species, and its associated hydrological habitats, as the basis for a new model of urban adaptation to sea level rise. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Community Equity Fund
May 16, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Laura Lopez
Daniel Padilla
Eduardo Peláez
Lily Song, Faculty Advisor. With the intent of addressing looming issues of gentrification in Overtown, this project advances the idea of a “community equity fund”: a community-steered fund created with the purpose of capturing profits generated by incoming developments. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Protecting Potable Water
May 14, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Pamela Cabrera
Jesse Keenan, Faculty Advisor
Nearly all of Miami-Dade County’s water supply is drawn from two well sites, both of which are subject to contamination from surface chemicals and salt water intrusion. This proposal reevaluates how to protect the city’s aquifer and suggests additional strategies for urban water retention and reuse. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Community Solar
May 14, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Catherine McCandless
Naomi Woods
Lily Song, Faculty Advisor
This project proposes a community solar array in or near Overtown that would allow low-income residents to receive energy credits on their utility bill. The installation would also provide much-needed energy resilience in the increasingly likely event of storm-related power outages. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Living Landforms
May 14, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Ziwei Zhang
Charles Waldheim, Faculty Advisor
Aziz Barbar, Faculty Advisor
In the coming decades, Miami will need to combine seawalls, breakwaters, and other coastal defense systems with green infrastructure and ecological assets. Zhang’s project introduces new coastal landforms shaped by flow dynamics that promote resilience and guide future sustainable development. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Biscayne Barnacles
May 14, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Sonny Meng
Qi Xu
Charles Waldheim, Faculty Advisor
Aziz Barbar, Faculty Advisor
Nearly all of Miami-Dade County’s water supply is drawn from two well sites, both of which are subject to contamination from surface chemicals and salt water intrusion. This proposal reevaluates how to protect the city’s aquifer and suggests additional strategies for urban water retention and reuse. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Paradise in Process
May 14, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Jessy Yang
Charles Waldheim, Faculty Advisor
Aziz Barbar, Faculty Advisor
This proposal uses the prospect of sea level rise as an opportunity to reshape the collective image of Miami Beach. It imagines a new “living seawall” for the city that incorporates hydrological channels, elevated buildings, and a natural mangrove buffer along Biscayne Bay. Learn more here.
CHANGING COASTAL COMMUNITIES
Overtown Commons Toolkit
May 14, 2019 at 12:00:00 AM
Elena Clarke
Malika Leiper
Chandra Rouse
Lily Song, Faculty Advisor This project proposes a network of community-designed common spaces interspersed throughout Miami’s Overtown, implemented with community involvement and meant to foster engaged ownership, social solidarity, and inclusive growth within the neighborhood. Learn more here.
An initiative of the Harvard Graduate School of Design that presents alternative futures and convenes conversations about how we live, where we live. Supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and generous donors to the American Cities Fund. Future of the American City is curated by the Office for Urbanization, with production by Aziz Barbar, Olani Ewunnet, Charlie Gaillard, Jeffrey S. Nesbit, and Mercedes Peralta. Subscribe here.
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