HUD Storm-Protection Competition Will Narrow Ideas Big and Small (New York Times)

New York Times
(11/14/2013 11:34 PM, Kia Gregory)

One project aims to raise parts of Lower Manhattan, put in a protective barrier that could double as a community center or an art installation, and sink the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive underground and cover it with a lush park.

Another would encircle parts of Hoboken, N.J. — vulnerable to flash floods and tidal surges at Weehawken Bay — with greenery by filling in parts of the Hudson River.

Yet another would possibly elevate or relocate some of the small businesses along New Jersey’s barrier islands to be better braced against climate change and sea-level rise. These are just a few of the concepts and measures the federal government said it could support, as part of a competition to design ways to protect the New York area from another Hurricane Sandy. The contest, held by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and called “Rebuild by Design,” attracted engineers, architects, designers and others who came up with several dozen proposals to defend the coastline from New Jersey to Connecticut.

The department has narrowed them down to 10, which will be announced on Friday. It does not mean that all 10 will be carried out, but they could have an inside track as billions of dollars in Hurricane Sandy relief money are doled out in the coming years.

“The big ideas are there,” said Henk Ovink, a senior adviser to the HUD secretary, Shaun Donovan. “The next phase is to get the ideas to concrete solutions. There are a lot of possibilities.”