Rockaways Site Becomes Lab for Storm Resiliency

NEW YORK CITY-In a Queens neighborhood hit hard by Sandy this past October, a public-private partnership has launched a design competition for storm-resilient development. Known as FAR ROC, or For A Resilient Rockaway, the competition is sponsored by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, L+M Development Partners, the Bluestone Organization, Triangle Equities, the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and Enterprise Community Partners Inc. It will seek ideas for developing the 80-acre-plus Arverne East site in the Rockaways into a mixed-use, mixed-income, sustainable and storm-resilient community.

“We have a responsibility to develop affordable housing in a thoughtful way that creates vibrant neighborhoods that are both livable and resilient,” HPD Commissioner Matthew Wambua says in a statement. “Arverne East must be designed as an affordable 21st century community fit to thrive in the face of 21st century storms.”

Arverne East is a city-owned site located in a FEMA Flood Zone A beachfront section of the Rockaways. It's also one of two sites in the Rockaway Peninsula for which HPD issued RFPs in the early 2000s. Arverne by the Sea—for which the L+M, Bluestone and Triangle development partnership was chosen—now boasts nearly 800 completed and occupied multifamily units, with another 500 under construction. In contrast to Arverne East, Arverne by the Sea sustained minimal damage from Sandy, thanks in large measure to resiliency measures incorporated into its planning.

Following the storm, the Arverne East site was identified as a laboratory for best practices in waterfront development, according to a release. “One of the crucial lessons learned from the effects of Hurricane Sandy is that now, more than ever, we must pay careful attention to developing the most sustainable, resilient waterfront communities possible,” Ron Moelis, CEO of L+M, says in a statement. “The FAR ROC competition will encourage the pursuit of practices in line with this mission from every angle of development, be it planning, design or construction.”

The competition is in two phases. Phase I seeks proposals on balancing the environmental and financial challenges of development in flood-prone areas with the social and economic needs of existing communities. Project teams are asked to submit a proposed site plan, along with specific resilient development strategies, smart infrastructure strategies and proposed uses for any facilities on the site. Each team must include at least one licensed architect and one licensed engineer.

Semi-finalists chosen to move on to Phase II by the independent competition jury will be announced on July 15 and will be awarded $30,000 each to further develop their proposed design solutions. Phase II submissions will be due from each semi-finalist team in the required physical and electronic submission formats at the offices of AIANY by Monday, Oct. 7, with the winning project team to be announced on Oct. 24.  The winning project team will receive an additional prize of $30,000 and the opportunity to engage with the city, L+M, Bluestone and Triangle to discuss the possible production, design and construction documents for the development of the project, the release states.