Boston Society of Landscape Architects Spring Fieldbook Volume 14.1 | Page 22

On the larger stage, we need to develop inclusive ways of educating
others on the vulnerabilities, integrated mitigation strategies, and
potential benefits related to not only sea-level rise, but also urbanism and
economies. The solutions will undoubtedly be complex and nuanced, but
how we talk about them needn’t—and simply can’t—be.

Acting Locally
It is projected that, globally, sea levels will rise two feet by mid-century
and six feet by 2100. In Greater Boston, the new tide line will transform
the coastal landscape, and increase the probability of a major storm
devastating the metropolitan region. At Sasaki, we’ve launched a research
initiative addressing this issue, called Sea Change. The Sea Change team
is leveraging the firm’s interdisciplinary practice through multiple levels
of preparedness planning—at the building, city, and regional scale. Our
designers are collaborating to layer design thinking with sea level rise
expertise in allied fields, including engineering, academia, advocacy, and
policy making.
To augment this research, we leveraged Sasaki’s summer internship
and also partnered with The Boston Architectural College (BAC). Sasaki’s
annual internship charette focuses on a local issue each year, and the
2013 students focused specifically on sea level rise implications and design
solutions in South Boston. A fall BAC “Natural Systems” studio built up on
the interns’ research and focused on East Boston and The
Boston Harbor Islands.

Talking Resilience
Gina Ford, ASLA

“As designers, we rely on
sweeping, evocative discourse
to convey the big picture and
industry-specific language to
explain the details. Neither
communicates effectively with
the local community, politicians,
or financiers.”

In recent public dialogue about sea-level
rise and resilience, there’s been a shifting of tides, so
to speak. Moving beyond vulnerabilities, the focus
is becoming mitigation and resilience. And as cities
and communities start to ask what they can do to
protect themselves from sea level rise, there is a great
opportunity for designers to play an important role in
the conversation. We can create strategies that will
not only protect our coasts, but also introduce greater
vibrancy, connectivity, and economic opportunities to our
urban spaces and places along the water. But to meet
the potential, we need to articulate our ideas clearly
and conscientiously.

Sasaki is curating an exhibition to showcase this research, which examines
Boston’s vulnerabilities and demonstrates design strategies. The exhibition
will be on view at District Hall from April 7–June 4, and research featured
is funded in part by The BAC. Ultimately, the exhibition suggests a specific
call to action: a regional plan for the Greater Boston area.

Easier said than done. There is no silver bullet
for resilience; we will need to layer many strategies to
achieve true protection from sea-level rise and other
effects of climate change. And, more often than not, this
line of discussion quickly becomes complex. As designers,
we rely on sweeping, evocative discourse to convey the
big picture and industry-specific language to explain the
details. Neither communicates effectively with the local
community, politicians, or financiers.

The Sasaki intern charette “Working Waterfront” team proposed a
resiliency strategy for Boston’s industrial waterfront. They designed
a multi-functional levee with [