The Regional Workshop, aimed at sharing expertise and case studies of climate-resilient efforts across the region, took place on Monday March 31st at NYIT’s historic de Seversky mansion in Old Westbury, NY. The workshop addressed a range of the climate-resilience challenges facing the region’s building types. This aligns with the MAURD graduate students resilient urban design studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Having done vast research on the impacts of climate change at the local, urban and regional scale, this background provided them the opportunity to become active in the discussions. MAURD students were active volunteers in the workshop taking notes, sketching, sharing ideas, and speaking for their groups. MAURD student Shiva Ghomi is Coordinator of the AIA Committee that organized the effort.

Speakers included Henk Ovink, Principal of Rebuild by Design/Senior Advisor to US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Colonel Paul Owen, US Army Corps of Engineers Commander, New York District. Both are responsible for regional resilient planning and design initiatives. Thaddeus Pawlowski, resilient urban design expert from the NYC Department of City Planning led the group segment to review DCP designs for five building types; tenement, beach bungalow, detached house, attached house, and apartment building. The sessions explored revisions to New York City building codes to address resilience, federal planning initiatives, financing and resilient development opportunities. The workshop also discussed an on-going effort to catalog best practices in flood protection for the NYC Hazard Mitigation Plan.