Architects, engineers compete to save the New York coastline

One of the winning proposals for the Rebuild By Design competition involves a park along the lower tip of Manhattan with raised berms for flood protection that also serves as a park. Image courtesy Bjarke Ingels Group

There were only two emails sitting in Henk Ovinks inbox when he entered his New York City office on July 19, 2013. One was from a concrete company; the other from an artist in Arizona. Both were entries for his design competition to rebuild storm-damaged New York and New Jersey and protect the community from another Hurricane Sandy. But neither fit the contest criteria. He had expected at least 50 to 75 entries in this competition. And that day was the deadline.

But by lunch, there were 24. And they kept pouring in. By 6 p.m., 148 teams of architects, engineers, scientists and designers from around the world had submitted their flood protection plans for the New York City area.

In this report that aired in October 2013, Miles OBrien reports on high-tech infrastructure adjustments in New York City after Hurricane Sandy.

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hammered the New York and New Jersey coasts with eight-foot storm surges, killing 117 people, destroying whole communities and causing an estimated $71 billion in damage for the two states.

Ovink, a Dutch designer who had worked in the Netherlands building for sea level rise and flooding, is a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and President Obamas Hurricane Sandy Recovery Task Force. Climate change and resulting storms like Hurricane Sandy is forcing engineers, architects and governments to change how we live with water, Ovink said. In the future, flood protection and rebuilding needs to encompass be more than simply putting up a wall, he said.

Its a paradigm shift from seeing water as a threat and just wanting to be protected to saying water is part of our life. Living with the water is a better perspective to moving forward, he said.

He and Donovan collaborated to create Rebuild by Design, a competition that challenged designers to collaborate with communities hit by Hurricane Sandy to develop innovative ideas to protect the New York and New Jersey shoreline. After receiving the applications, they divided the 148 applicants into 10 interdisciplinary teams. Each team was asked to form a coalition with their sites surrounding community leaders, businessmen and residents to guide their design.

We didnt want a design team that goes to the community and says, Heres a golden egg. We wanted a collaboration that had a base in those communities and that could be innovative and come up with sustainable solutions, Ovink said.

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Architects, engineers compete to save the New York coastline