Maybe Sandy, the colossal hurricane that has barreled across the East Coast this week, will finally get the message across: "We are all from New Orleans Now."
Thanks to climate change, America's coastal cities, and particularly New York, have become increasingly vulnerable to nature's wrath. Over two years ago, MOMA asked five architects to come up with a redesign of lower Manhattan that would prevent damage in the event of major flooding. Barry Bergdoll, the Curator of the "Rising Currents" exhibit, put it to the architects this way: “Your mission is to come up with images that are so compelling they can’t be forgotten and so realistic that they can’t be dismissed.”
Unfortunately, they were. As the many images from traditional news sources and social media users reveal, Sandy's damage has been extensive - and perhaps, in many ways, preventable.
It often takes tragedy to instigate change. Let's hope that Sandy will finally get the conversation of New York's vulnerable urban landscape on to the table.
More images of Sandy's damage, as well as plans from MOMA's "Rising Currents" Exhibit, after the break...
Instagram User @time "Water pours into a parking garage on Avenue C in Manhattan @michaelchristopherbrown #photography #photojournalism #documentary #hipstamatic #mobilephotography #streetphotography #iphoneonly #hurricanesandy #sandy #manhattan #storm #parkinggarage"
Instagram User @time "time #sandbags line the waterfront of downtown #jerseycity #newjersey with the unfinished Freedom Tower towering over lower #manhattan across the roiling #hudson #river"
Flickr User MTAPhotos 'Floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy enter the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel (former Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel). Governor Andrew M. Cuomo ordered the tunnel closed at 2 p.m. on Monday, October 29, 2012.'. Used under Creative Commons
Cite: Vanessa Quirk. "Will Sandy Finally Convince New York to Re-Design Its Waterfront? " 30 Oct 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/288455/will-sandy-finally-convince-new-york-to-re-design-its-waterfront> ISSN 0719-8884