Blue Dunes (Finalist)

Team Leads: WXY Architecture + Urban Design and West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture Climate Science Leads: Dr. Alan Blumberg, Dr. Sergey Vinogradov, Dr. Thomas Herrington, Stevens Institute of Technology Risk Modeling: Andrew Kao, AIR Worldwide Engineering & Technical Feasibility: Daniel Hitchings, ARCADIS Financial Modeling: Kei Hayashi, BJH Advisors Landscape Ecology: Kate John-Alder, Rutgers University Planning & Design: Maxine Griffith, Griffith Planning & Design Graphic Design: Yeju Choi, NowHere Office Real Estate Development: Jesse Keenan, Columbia University Center for Urban Real Estate Community & Planning: William Morrish, Parsons the New School for Design

Source: Rebuild by Design

The WXY/ West 8 Team asked, “if we had planned and designed our coasts with coastal processes in mind, would there have been a way to deflect to storm driven surges with a set of barrier islands located offshore in the coastal waters?”

The results demonstrated potential for saving lives and billions of dollars across the region. The resulting proposal to create an offshore barrier island chain centered on the NY/NJ harbor is called “The Blue Dunes” – blue indicating their position in the open ocean, and dunes for the natural landforms they mimic.

Source: Rebuild by Design

WXY / West 8 investigated using a new form of designed coastal protection – offshore dunes – that would, on a large scale, mitigate risk for life, economy and property within coastal zones.

Consulting a marine coastal map allowed the team to define the key features of a comprehensive inland-beach-island-marine section, and then tie these physical characteristics to the team’s economic, social and political analysis of the benefits obtained from soft-edged storm surge risk reduction. Building offshore dunes, further out in the ocean than previously considered, results in the scale of annual savings for flood insurance that can draw on investment nationally and internationally.

The ultimate goal is not the mastery of nature, nor the avoidance of sea level rise. Instead they sought to understand and work with the processes of nature to create a multi-layered system with the inherent capacity to adapt and change over time.

View a PDF of the team’s full proposal here

Source: Rebuild by Design

Today this proposal stands at a crossroads – the potential for the future of coastal protection has been discovered, but much work needs to be done. The scientists, engineers, planners, economists and maritime stakeholders that have participated to date have identified the key issues that need to be addressed, including water quality, habitats, recreation, navigation, constructability, and funding.

The team proposes the creation of an initiative, Blue Dunes Research Initiative (BDRI) to explore these issues and develop a new approach to coastal protection. The work needed to create the first phase of storm protection offshore will supply the region’s coastal communities with new planning tools and resources. BDRI is a catalyst for creating a knowledge network and will include the entire region’s urban coastal communities, from the organizations that serve them to the scientists invested in researching them.

Source: Rebuild by Design