EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

“When you think of just the economic piece—the town of Paradise lost their tax base in a day,” said Barry J. Long, Jr., AIA, LEED AP,  principal and president of Urban Design Associates (UDA).

“They had to get outside funding to backfill their tax roll to 2055.

They had naturally occurring affordable housing in a three-county region—but much of that will be lost because of the high cost of rebuilding.”

Long said building back affordably is a higher priority for disaster survivors than building back to be fire resistant.

He said many cities push back on building codes that require more than the International Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Code, which sets minimum regulations for safeguarding life and property from the intrusion of wildfires.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Barry J. Long, Jr., AIA, LEED AP, is principal and president of Urban Design Associates (UDA), a Pittsburgh-based firm that has a national practice of helping communities recover from disaster.

UDA worked to rebuild Paradise, Calif., where a 2018 fire destroyed more than 18,000 structures, including over 14,000 homes, and killed 85 people.

Long noted that more than six years after the fire, Paradise is only about 25 percent built back.

Businesses have been slow to come back, because there’s not enough population to support them.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

“Even before the fires, a shortage of affordable housing in Los Angeles created a pall on overall economic growth …

Renters in Los Angeles County need to earn $48.04 per hour—nearly triple the minimum wage—to afford the average monthly asking rent of about $2,500, according to the California Housing Partnership.

That average is about 45 percent higher than national rents …” stated the report by Costar.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Costar, a real estate data and analytics company reported “the most destructive wildfires in California history are expected to send insurance rates surging, adding another headwind for owners of multifamily properties in Los Angeles and potentially hindering affordable housing goals.”

The report notes that The American Property Casualty Insurance Association has lobbied Congress to pass more laws to address wildfire risks—such as the Fix Our Forests Act that seeks to increase the pace and scale of forest management and establishes a program to better coordinate federal agencies to reduce wildfire damage to properties.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Areas devastated by flooding and windstorms are looking to the nature-based resiliency and self-sufficient sustainability of Florida’s Babcock Ranch—which has survived a hurricane that virtually destroyed nearby Gulf Coast communities.

When communities rebuild after wildfires and other disasters, the president elect of the American Institute of Architects and a leading Disability/Aging in Place/Environment advocate, Illya Azaroff, champions the benefits of Universal Design.

Residential and commercial space that is designed to accommodate all ages and abilities adds flexibility, durability and cost efficiency—similar to green building.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Today, more brutal (in terms of loss of life and billions in property) natural disasters are happening more frequently.

Wildfires, hurricanes, floods and other disasters threaten all that we hold dear.

Planners, architects, builders, developers, REALTORS® and even insurance companies are rallying to get a handle on resilient design.

From protecting individual buildings to entire communities, the professions that shape our built environment and way of life are searching for best practices that will prepare us for and protect us from extreme-weather impacts.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

For centuries, vernacular building techniques used local materials and a knowledge of local conditions to create buildings that were naturally resistant to disastrous weather.

Somewhere in the mid-20th century, conventional building was reflected in suburban sprawl building patterns and mass production with materials sourced from far away.

When LEED was introduced in 2000 by the U.S. Green Building Council, sustainable building and the long-term financial rewards of investing in sustainable building became part of our vocabulary.