NY DEC Announces Design Opportunity for Hudson Communities
"This unique opportunity will help waterfront communities along the Hudson River bolster their resilience by designing innovative projects like floodable parks and flood-adapted buildings," said Basil Seggos, commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos recently announced an opportunity for a Hudson River waterfront municipality to host the Cornell University Department of Landscape Architecture's Climate-adaptive Design Studio during fall 2019. The Climate-adaptive Design Studio links Cornell University graduate students in landscape architecture with flood-risk communities to explore design alternatives for more climate-resilient and connected waterfront areas.
"This unique opportunity will help waterfront communities along the Hudson River bolster their resilience by designing innovative projects like floodable parks and flood-adapted buildings. To prepare New York's waterfront communities for the challenges of our changing climate, DEC is partnering with design experts from Cornell and local experts on the ground to ready New Yorkers for the challenges posed by extreme weather events and sea-level rise on the tidal Hudson," Seggos explained.
DEC announced in April the availability of $125,000 to implement the design of a project to reduce shoreline or stormwater risk in Catskill, Kingston, Piermont, and/or Hudson after those communities previously participated in the CaD Studio, which is a collaboration between DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program and the Cornell University Department of Landscape Architecture. Student design teams meet with local stakeholders to develop an understanding of the unique waterfront opportunities and challenges, focusing on public access, economic development, and climate resilience.
The host community must be interested in applying the design principles to an existing or proposed project and be able to engage key stakeholders who commit to attending a minimum of three meetings with the student design teams.
An informational webinar about the CaD Studio opportunity will be held June 12 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Interested municipalities must submit a letter of interest to Libby Zemaitis via email at libby.zemaitis@dec.ny.gov by June 28. Instructions on submitting a letter of interest are available at the website of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.