Mayor Bloomberg launched the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR) to develop the City’s plan for rebuilding neighborhoods hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy and to adapt the building stock and infrastructure towards greater resiliency for the risks posed by climate change. For the Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront, where WXY was the City’s lead community planner, the vulnerabilities of industrial neighborhoods needed to be assessed according to the particularities of predominantly older, low-rise building stock and independent business owners. 

Planning recommendations, embedded in GIS analysis and costed design of retrofit and resiliency measures, for the Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront dealt with a range of coastal protections and strategies for buildings, infrastructure and community development. Red Hook and Newtown Creek were two areas of particular focus for their high vulnerability to flooding today and into the future with rising tides.