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Waggonner & Ball Architects
This park in New Orleans is designed to capture vast quantities of stormwater during heavy rain.
Against a backdrop of global population growth and urbanization, the recent National Climate Assessment made clear that extreme weather events—heat waves, drought, tropical storms, high winds, storm surges and heavy downpours—are becoming more severe and substantially affecting the safety, health and economy of entire communities. Events like Hurricane Sandy and northeastern Illinois' own flooding in 2011 and 2013 have made it clear that we remain vulnerable in spite of advances in disaster preparedness.
In response, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development announced the National Disaster Resilience Competition, which will make $1 billion available to communities that have been struck by natural disasters in recent years. The competition is based in large part on the post-Sandy Rebuild by Design process.
As the City of Chicago, Cook County and DuPage County prepare to apply, MPC is invigorating and informing that process by inviting national leaders in many aspects of resiliency planning and implementation to Chicago to share their thoughts on what works—and what doesn't—in this emerging field.
This MPC roundtable will offer insight into the two biggest resiliency planning efforts to date—post-Katrina New Orleans and post-Sandy New York and New Jersey—featuring the thought leaders behind those planning processes. These projects combine improved ecological systems with community benefits that include expanded public park space and enhanced neighborhood livability and mobility. Then they’ll bring the issue home, offering advice for the Chicago region.
Speakers include:
- Kobi Ruthenberg, Design Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Urbanism (one of six Rebuild by Design winners)
- David Waggonner, President, Waggonner & Ball Architects
The cost of the roundtable, which includes lunch, is $15 for MPC donors and $30 for all others. Seating is limited, so pre-registration is required.
MPC thanks AECOM for their generous sponsorship of this event.