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The Bight Studio: Pine Barrens, Power Brokers, Development and Displacement on the World’s Most Contested Coastline is a regional urban design studio in Columbia’s MSAUD program that confronts the intertwined crises of housing affordability, climate change, and displacement across the New York–New Jersey Bight. In partnership with the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub, a consortium of 13 institutions conducting research on responses to coastal climate change risks, the studio situates New York City not as an isolated metropolis but as one part of a larger, fragile regional system linking…
Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and Climate School announce the launch of a new dual degree program in Urban Design and Climate
GSAPP, a school that champions climate action through the built environment in its research, pedagogies, and publications, is excited to announce the launch of a new program in partnership with the Columbia Climate School: the Dual Degree in Urban Design and Climate. Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, students will have the opportunity to receive the dual Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design and …
CRCL convened a Community Change Summit on October 11-12 with 100+ community members in Johnstown Pennsylvania and surrounding cities to talk about the economic future of the region. The event was jointly hosted by the Columbia Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes and Harvard Loeb Fellowship Alumni Association with support from the Community Foundation of the Alleghenies. Together we will learned about the region's unique history of resilience and celebrated the achievements of its people. Tours and roundtable discussions focused on housing and neighborhoods,…
The outcome of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP28, held from 30 November until 12 December 2023, left many unsatisfied. While COP28 was the first COP where Parties agreed to transition away from fossil fuels, there were several loopholes. As outlined in the Alliance for Small Island States (AOSIS) statement, the change is seen by many as incremental and not transformative. This also echoes other constituencies of SIDS, including CARICOM, where the ocean and the climate justice imperative of SIDS in the Caribbean presented a unified front in advance of the COP…
“There’s no thread that connects the investment [of a buyout] to something that is actually meaningful. There’s nothing that follows the dot all the way through,” says Kate Orff, faculty director of Columbia University’s Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes and the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” for her work on coastal adaptation. What’s needed “is a program that actually looks more synthetically at how all of these things come together.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-12-12/climate-migration-s-billion-dollar-question-who-manages-the-retreat?srnd=green
The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP28, held from 30 November until 12 December 2023, will take place against a challenging backdrop as the recently published Emissions Gap Report shows that global warming is on track for up to 2.9°C. Building on the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue that took place from 13-14 June 2023 in Bonn, Germany and the Ocean and Coastal Impact System targets of the Sharm-El Sheikh Adaptation Agenda, COP28 presents critical opportunities to scale up ocean-related mitigation and adaptation activities as it convenes ocean leaders from around the…
TIME named Kate Orff to the 2023 TIME 100, its annual list of the most influential people in the world.
Widely recognized as a leading voice in landscape architecture, urban design, and climate adaptation in a global context, Orff joins a class of preeminent figures in politics, technology, philanthropy, media, business, entertainment, and beyond. The full list is available on newsstands on Friday, April 14.
In her tribute, architect Jeanne Gang writes: “Kate Orff is a landscape architect who’s never been hemmed in by garden walls—seeking instead to liberate…
Earlier this month, Ningaloo Coast UNESCO World Heritage site in Australia released a pioneering resilient reefs strategy that is aimed at securing the long-term conservation of the coral reef and its communities in a rapidly changing climate. The strategy takes a uniquely holistic view of the threats facing Ningaloo Reef together with the needs of local communities and businesses and proposes priority actions to support thriving, resilient ecosystems and long-term sustainability for the people who depend on the reef.
Rising temperatures, localised human impacts and…
Hurricane Recovery Fails the Financially Vulnerable
Based on a decade of data from Hurricane Sandy, two New York City planners explore the inequities of disaster mitigation and recovery — and what needs to change to prevent climate gentrification. By Donovan Finn and Thad Pawlowski
https://www.planning.org/planning/2022/summer/hurricane-recovery-fails-the-financially-vulnerable/
The Army Corps of Engineers released a $52 billion dollar proposal to protect New York's coastlines through sea walls and storm surge gates. Samantha Maldonado, reporter at The City covering climate and resiliency, and Thaddeus Pawlowski, co-director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, explain how it would work, and why environmental groups are not all on board with the plan.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/how-army-corps-engineers-plans-protect-manhattan-coastline/
Kate talks to Brian about why "trees are a form of civic infrastructure" helping us to keep cool during heat waves and absorb water during heavy rainstorms; and how we need to work together to depave the city and create more contiguous ecologies.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/the-brian-lehrer-show-2022-07-20/
How can cities prepare for climate change?
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/article-how-should-cities-prepare-for-climate-change/
Climate change isn’t just coming, it’s here. And cities are uniquely susceptible to its effects because of their population density and infrastructure. So how can they better prepare for the increasingly devastating impacts of the climate crisis? In this episode, we explore the concept of climate resilience — how prepared are cities to anticipate, prepare for and respond to natural disasters? We hear from Thaddeus Pawlowski, an urban designer, professor…
Congratulations to all the GSAPP Urban Design students graduating this week - we are so proud of their work and exciting to bring together our partners through the Resilient Reefs Initiative Belize!
We began studio with a week-long workshop during which we engaged directly with local officials from the Belizean Government, advocates from local and international NGOs, and students and faculty from the University of Belize to identify key issues as well as community strengths. We ended with a final review that brought local stakeholders, global experts, and distinguished design faculty back…
Belize faces unprecedented stress from climate change, rapid urbanization and real estate development, unsustainable tourism, and lack of infrastructure. Erosion, sea level rise, sedimentation are displacing communities and jobs. Livelihoods of those who depend on the reef are threatened. And the Mesoamerican Reef, second largest to the Great Barrier Reef, and the natural capital of sea grasses and mangroves and other irreplaceable ecosystems in Belize are under threat from increasingly poor water quality, rising sea temperatures, reclamation, and overuse.
On May 4 - May 5, 2022, Associate…