Design for Troubled Waters

Cities need to grapple with complex ideas to prepare for the next superstorm.
By Jerry Adler, Architectural Record
December 17, 2012

Two large buildings stand about a quarter mile apart in Red Hook, on the Brooklyn waterfront. One is a 19th-century brick warehouse handsomely renovated to house apartments and Fairway Market, a much-beloved gourmet grocery; the other is the local outpost of IKEA in a sprawling yellow-and-blue shed whose ground floor is mostly parking. The storm surge from Superstorm Sandy wrecked Fairway, which will take months to rebuild. IKEA, by contrast, with its merchandise mostly off the ground floor, was scarcely damaged and reopened a few days later; FEMA even housed a temporary office there. More … http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2012/12/121217-Design-for-Troubled-Waters.asp.