Resilient design

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Integrating resilient design principles

Flooding from Superstorm Sandy

The growing risk of major flooding in the Northeast is compelling many coastal and riverside communities to give serious consideration to flood-mitigation practices.

A report issued in June 2013 by the New York City Panel on Climate Change, Climate Risk Information 2013, projected a middle-range rise in sea level from 4 to 8 inches within the next few years and from 11 to 24 inches in 30 years. Baseline air temperatures are expected to rise 4 to 5.5 degrees and precipitation increasing 5 to 10% during this time period.

With studies such as this providing increasing evidence, facility professionals are recognizing that buildings need to be designed, from footprint configuration through utilities, to resist the impact of flooding and assure rapid recommissioning.

An effective strategy

Resilient design is an emerging and changing area of specialization that requires your design team to be thoroughly knowledgeable about the field and committed to keeping up with standards that are being written and frequently re-written. The team must show it has the technical skills and give examples of how it’s applied these skills in real-world situations. Its staff must show it understands the work and has the resourcefulness and flexibility to find solutions in challenging situations.

A wall collapsed from the force of rushing water

Trudeau’s professionals are trained in such resilient design strategies, having also completed rebuilding work after Hurricane Irene. In addition, we have received training at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Climate Adapted Design covering buildings, neighborhoods, regions, infrastructure and finance. Our goal is for our projects to include resilient design principles with the least impact to the project schedule and budget.

An effective resilient design strategy takes into account the natural processes of the water cycle, will acknowledge that flooding is result of changes in land use as well as increase in precipitation, and recognize what happens when a landscape is altered and an area’s water balance is disrupted. Understanding these principles, an effective design will take steps to reduce the direct impact of water and wind on a structure by dissipating its energy. It will develop plans for the safety of building’s users, designing a means of evacuation and maintaining power.

Withstanding future storms

Trudeau’s professionals review available damage reports, raw flood data from government agencies and other related information. We study the conditions of tidal flood waters impacting the specific elevations of buildings, determining which will be most impacted by wave velocity and which will be subject to scouring effects of retreating flood waters.

Plans for installing flood vents

We then give recommendations on modifications that could be made to improve the resiliency of your existing site and resiliency of any long-term construction projects. “Pinch-points” between buildings can be minimized to slow water velocity and decrease the risks of site scouring, drag on building surfaces and sinkholes. These services will allow your campus to come back in service faster, providing services to the local community.

Trudeau’s team of professionals has designed plans to help buildings withstand future severe weather events. In Upstate New York, for example, Trudeau designed relief vents in the foundation of a community residence building to help balance hydrostatic pressures during a flood and to relocate mechanical and electrical equipment from the basement to the first and second floors. Downstate, we designed a plan to help a large institutional campus be quickly reoccupied after a major storm event, relocating all critical functions above flood areas.

The right design team 

Analyzing flood map data

It's crucial that you hire a design team for your site that has the experience to bring forward-thinking, practical analysis to your project and assure budget-conscious solutions to ensure your campus experiences minimal impacts and rapid recommissioning at future storm events. That’s Trudeau Architects.

Contact us at (518) 785-5851 and we’ll tell you more.


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