From Concept to Reality: Practical Resilience in Urban Design and Development

Our cities are at-risk. Will you be a part of the solution?

Welcome to The LineUp! Our weekly newsletter seeks to add value by engaging, connecting, and inspiring real estate operators, investors, and entrepreneurs. If you enjoy what you read, please like, share, and subscribe. Thank you for your support in growing this community! If you’d like to participate in our conversation join us on the Substack Chat?here.

Resiliency in design and development matters to us all as design and development professionals. Recently the urgent need for resiliency is even more clear based on the string of tragic events impacting so many lives throughout the United States and abroad.

Resiliency hit home with my family when Hurricane’s Helene and Milton smashed into our hometown of Tampa, FL this autumn. So many lives have been impacted, homes destroyed and worse. If you can find it in your heart to support the relief efforts in anyway we would all be extremely grateful. Every little bit counts.?Here?is a link to the Red Cross portal.

How many lives must be lost and homes must be destroyed before we take resiliency more seriously as design and development professionals?

As a real estate developer who started out in the early 2000’s learning the ropes this topic has only become more meaningful to me with each passing year. As a young person natural disaster’s were not “on my radar”. That happened somewhere else. Then Katrina hit in 2005 and that was a wake-up call for me as I had family on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi.

For all industry professionals there is an urgent need to prioritize resiliency in the design our buildings, cities, and regions and to proactively create policy and economic solutions.

On this topic, coming very soon we are proud to feature a conversation with?Professor Zachary Lamb?of University of California - Berkeley and his new book, “The Equitably Resilient City”.

This week we delve into the topic of resilient cities to learn more about solutions that work and to help set the table for a bright future.

Definition of Resilient Cities

A resilient city is designed to stand-up against and/or absorb shocks from both natural and man-made disasters. No city is completely resilient as design to that level would be unpractical. That being said, we as development professionals can keep certain elements in mind as we design new developments.

Important elements to consider when designing mixed-use neighborhoods and buildings include: at-risk populations, climate change, extreme population growth, natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, wild fires, tsunami’s, etc), and changing economic conditions.

In essence, resilient cities should protect and enhance the quality of life for residents and businesses and ensure their long-term sustainability and stability. Ultimately our business should be about building up people and creating great places.

Why Resiliency Matters Today More Than Ever

It seems like we cannot go 12 months without hearing about another natural or man-made disaster. The 24 hour news cycle, social media, and our extreme levels of connectivity bring us these disasters in real time. This connectivity has brought a new awareness of disasters that helps us understand the impacts of these disruptive events. This is a good thing as these are societal challenges we need to face as a whole. These community scale problems are too big to be faced alone by individual citizens.

Urbanization continues at a rapid pace across the planet. This in and of itself creates new challenges. As places rapidly urbanize it brings together more vulnerable populations and exposes them to challenges economically, physically, and mentally.

Whether you are living at the top of a gleaming new luxury condo tower in Sao Paolo or in the favela beneath it, we all have a shared responsibility to prepare for the worst, protect our fellow citizens and create stable cities.

Designing and building sustainable and resilient cities requires us as design and development professionals to include certain principles in our projects. To provide a reference for our industry, below are important elements to keep in mind as we design buildings, neighborhoods, and cities.

Top 10 Design + Planning Principles for Resilient Buildings & Cities

1. Climate Adaptation?- The design buildings to withstand extreme natural disaster events, such as earthquakes, flooding, heatwaves, and hurricanes.
2. Sustainable Resource Management?- Plan to use independent energy systems, water-efficient systems and materials that minimize energy usage, and environmental impacts.
3. Flexible and Adaptable Design?- Designs should allow spaces to change as communities evolve. Multi-funcitonal spaces and modular components can facilitate future upgrades and reconfigurations.
4. Social and Economic Diversity?- Diverse housing options ensure vibrant communities through a mix of housing types. Economic diversity ensures broader levels of employment and can improve social resilience.
5. Community-Centered Design?- The inclusion of community spaces, parks, and walkable streets encourages social interactions and social cohesion. s
6. Smart Infrastructure & Technology Integration?- Smart technology can monitor infrastructure and energy usage which can allow city managers and owners to be more proactive in maintenance and preparation for potential disruptive events.
7. Redundancy & Robustness?- Important systems such as power, water, and mobility, should be designed for redundancy. Back-up energy sources, multi-modal transportation, and decentralized energy grids are good examples of this principle.
8. Nature-Based Solutions?- The integration of green spaces, wetlands, and parks mitigate heat island effects, improves air quality, manages stormwater, and has a multitude of mental health benefits.
9. Emergency Preparedness & Disaster Planning?- Buildings and city plans should facilitate safe evacuations and provide easy access to energy shelters. Emergency access points, public communication systems, and clearly marked evacuation routes help cities and citizens respond in the event of an emergency.
10. Participatory Governance?- Community engagement is crucial to inform the decision-making process, to build trust, and to ensure all populations are protected in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.

And of course a post about resilient design and development could not be complete without a Top 10 list of the best projects from around the world.

What are the Top 10 Innovative Resiliency Projects from Around the World?

1. The Thames Barrier (London, UK) -?Link
2. Room for the River (The Netherlands) -?Link
3. New York City’s Climate Resiliency Design Guidelines (New York City, USA) -?Link
4. Copenhagen Cloudburst Management Plan (Copenhagen, Denmark) -?Link
5. Rotterdam Climate-Proof (Rotterdam, Netherlands) -?Link
6. Sponge Cities Initiative (China) -?Link
7. Miami Beach’s Rising Above Program (Miami, USA) -?Link
8. Green-Blue Network (Singapore) -?Link
9. The Living Breakwaters Project (Staten Island, New York, USA) -?Link
10. Floodable Parks (Chicago, USA) -?Link

These are just a sample of some of the best known large scale built-interventions and policy projects seeking to make our cities more resilient.

If you have a large scale development project that incorporates resiliency as a significant portion of its design, please share it with us! We would love to learn more and share more of these projects with our audience.

Resiliency Now

It becomes more urgent by the day to incorporate resiliency into our placemaking, development and planning projects. This is not just a conversation about climate change.

Resiliency is also a relevant topic for developers who need to plan for preparedness and safety, economic stability, community engagement, and social connectivity.

Let’s work together to find new ways to design our cities to be inclusive places that can withstand and rebound from natural and man-made disasters.

Sincerely, John

P.S. - This is a very big topic. If you have anything to add or want to share a project with us and our audience, let’s hear from you!

Thank you for reading The Lineup. Do you have an entrepreneurship, private equity, or real estate topic you'd like to see us cover in an upcoming issue? We'd love the feedback! We are also open to media partnerships. Reach out to us at?[email protected]. And don't forget to like, share, and subscribe!

What We Have Been Reading This Week

• The Equitable Resilient City (Book) - Authors Zachary Lamb & Lawrence Vale
• Commercial Observer - No, Sponsors Shouldn’t Shy Away From Private Commercial Real Estate Funds
• The Real Deal - Banks delinquencies skyrocket 990%
• The Real Deal - Home sales could be headed for a 30-year low - again
• Commercial Observer - New Head of CRE at JP Morgan Michelle Herrick

This post is sponsored by Pugh Management a leader in real estate development. To learn more reach out to us at?[email protected]?or click?this link to our website.