Mar 15 2013

NYIT Students Plan Design Competition to Help Coastal Communities - Update

Update 3/15/13: The handle, @NYITORLI, for Operation Resilient Long Island has been named a "One to Watch on Twitter" by Newsday. Read more.

Old Westbury, N.Y. (March 6, 2013) - NYIT students have announced the launch of a global design competition to help communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. The initiative, 3C: Comprehensive Coastal Communities, is part of Operation Resilient Long Island (ORLI), a grassroots committee led by architecture, interior design, and construction management students at NYIT. Their goal is to explore and develop long-term building and design solutions to aid communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Registration for the competition opens on March 25 and is free and open to the public. Professionals and students from around the world are invited to participate.

When Hurricane Sandy struck the U.S. coastline in October, thousands of people on Long Island and in the tri-state area suffered damage to their homes. In the storm's aftermath, communities are facing a critical juncture in determining how to rebuild for the future. The 3C competition seeks creative, innovative designs to answer this question for the coastal communities of Long Island, New York City, New Jersey, and southern New England. Entrants are asked to select a specific community, design a housing typology, and incorporate it into a neighborhood block plan, which considers the local landscape, façade cohesion, and zoning regulations.

"There is little awareness [of the aesthetic challenges] among residents," says Michael Koutsoubis, a 4th-year architecture student and ORLI committee member. "When these three different typologies of homes are combined together, it will affect the aesthetics and the planning of the community. Some houses will inevitably be raised above the other ones."

In recent months, students involved in ORLI have visited flood-damaged areas and met with community stakeholders such as Long Beach (N.Y.) Building Commissioner Scott Kemins to learn about zoning regulations and building codes that affect recovering communities. For example, existing homes must now comply with new regulations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which calls for homes assessed at damage levels of 50% and up to either be demolished and reconstructed, or raised above the Base Flood Elevation. These codes ensure life safety to citizens living in flood plains; however, few have considered their aesthetic implications. ORLI asks: What will happen to an entire community once some homes are raised and others remain on the ground? Can comparable communities be envisioned or will the unique aesthetic these places have be lost forever?

In addition, students are working out ORLI's challenges in NYIT's Design IV studio course and have developed and presented ideas for new housing typologies on Feb. 7 in Manhattan and Feb. 11 in Old Westbury (see photos above and at right). View all photos.

The registration deadline for the 3C competition is June 30 and submissions are due by July 25. They will be judged by a panel of industry professionals to be announced in the coming weeks. Winners will have their work included in a publication distributed to local municipalities throughout the region and featured at an October 2013 symposium organized by ORLI members at the NYIT Auditorium on Broadway.

For more information about the competition or to register, visit 3Ccompetition.org. Weekly updates including photos, videos, and blog posts are now available. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.