For decades, scientists have been warning the world about climate change and the potentially catastrophic toll that shifting weather patterns could have on our cities and communities.
Jon Penndorf, project manager and sustainability leader at Perkins and Wills’ Washington DC office, tells GlobalData the true wake-up call for architects came in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy raged up the US East Coast, culminating in a major disaster in New York City and surrounding areas. There were more than 50 deaths, extensive power outages and billions of dollars in damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Penndorf tells GlobalData: “We’ve seen lots of different climatic events throughout the United States before, but very few have hit a huge metropolitan area like [Sandy] did New York City. I think that was the beginning of the wake-up call. Since then, I think the design community is more attuned to the frequency and severity of these types of events, for sure.”
“Risks can be hyper-local. In DC, when we did the climate plan, we boiled down the three major risks to extreme heat, extreme precipitation, and a combined sea level rise and storm surge. But those aren’t the right risks for every location.
“A good example is in Houston where they suffered through Hurricane Harvey a couple of years ago. We’re actively looking at upsizing roof drains, for example, greater than what the code requires. So looking at what those risks are and how the design can mitigate some of those risks, whether that be an ability to protect glazing; whether it be increasing the ballistics level of your building envelope because of hurricane-force projectiles, or making sure there are safe havens in the building for the occupants.
“We are in the process of designing our own new office space, which we’ll be moving into next year. There is some significant discussion about that building and how it can be more resilient. And we are having conversations with other clients in a more informal way about how buildings can be more resilient and what that means for them. I think we’re seeing bits and pieces of it creep into projects that are underway, and it’s just a matter of time before the full idea becomes a reality.”
“Energy independence is probably one of the easiest ways to be resilient. You can weather storms, power outages, heat waves, power surges – when there are strains on the electrical grid, your structure can essentially go off the grid. It’s great for energy conservation, for reducing pollution, reducing fossil fuel dependence, but it’s also a resilience tactic.”
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