Van Alen Institute and North Miami announced

Van Alen Institute and the city of North Miami announced Department Design Office as the winners of their #KeepingCurrent Repetitive Loss Properties competition.

Department Design Office, the design firm collaborated with artist Adler Guerrier, architect Andrew Aquart, and hazard mitigation startup Forerunner on the winning design.

The teams were asked to create renderings for the repetitive loss site pilot at 901 Northeast 144th Street located in North Miami’s District 3.

Image by Department Design Office

Fast Company

North Miami.

Reimagine public uses of flood-prone lots

Van Alen Institute, in collaboration with the City of North Miami, announced … KEEPING CURRENT: Repetitive Loss Properties design competition. The competition, which launched in April 2019, invited architects and designers from around the globe to submit proposals that reimagine public uses of the City of North Miami’s current and future portfolio of flood-prone vacant lots, known as repetitive loss (RL) properties.”

Keeping Current: A Sea Level Rise Challenge for Greater Miami is a project of Van Alen Institute that encompasses a series of initiatives seeking innovative solutions to protect South Florida’s 6 million residents from the potentially catastrophic consequences of sea level rise. To fund the initiative, Van Alen raised $850,000 from The Rockefeller Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Miami Foundation, Target, and Terra. Van Alen employs its expertise and network to help South Florida residents gain a better understanding of sea level rise and new ways to respond to their changing environment. This initiative builds upon Van Alen’s leadership in organizing projects that generate innovative solutions to complex climate change problems. After Hurricane Sandy, we worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to develop nearly $1 billion worth of infrastructural improvements in the Northeast region. We also recently worked in Lower Mississippi River Delta, where we collaborated with dozens of stakeholders to make the New Orleans region more sustainable over the next 100 years.”

Van Alen Institute – Keeping Current, Climate Design Lab (with University of Miami), Repetitive Loss (with the city of North Miami), Resource Guide (“designing to live with water” – pdf)