Colegio de Arquitectos y Arquitectos Paisajistas, Webinar

Presenters:

• Yanel de Angel, FAIA, Principal at Perkins&Will, co-founder of resilientSEE-PR

• José Sánchez, PE, Senior Structural Engineer at Tipping Structural Engineers, co-founder of Voluntariado de Ingenieros y Profesionales de Puerto Rico

• Manuel Fontan, PE, Engineer at WSP USA, collaborator resilientSEE-PR

Abstract:

With disruptive events spanning hurricanes, earthquakes, extreme heat, and even the pandemic, community centers play a critical role in building capacity and resilience throughout the year. We will share as a resource a guide to resilient community centers, examples of resonance and lessons learned based on projects created to meet different community needs on the Island.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the programmatic and specific building systems strategies to make a resilient community center successful, including structural integrity and energy and water reliability.

2. Discern the critical building systems components to integrate according to building type and its limitations (depending on if existing or new construction), and natural hazards.

3. Understand the typical technical process required to develop a federal funding request proposal, inclusive of health and safety considerations.

4. Apply the lessons learned from existing (or under design) community centers in different geographic locations.

Hurricane and Earthquake Resilient Homes: Practical Strategies for Professionals

Presenters:

• Yanel de Angel, FAIA, Principal at Perkins & Will, co-founder of resilientSEE-PR

• Danniely Staback, Rhode Island School of Design Professor / ResilientSEE-PR contributor

• Pedro Sifre, PE, Senior Director and Structural Engineer, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger / ResilientSEE-PR contributor

Abstract:

During the recent hurricane and seismic events, many houses on the Island were affected. In some cases, they were houses of informal construction and in others, structures that did not comply with established codes. We will discuss construction strategies - concrete or wood - specific to the types of earthquakes and hurricane forces that affect us in Puerto Rico. We will also touch on practical tips for house maintenance that can extend the useful life of the structure. We will highlight instances of code updates pertinent to hurricanes and earthquakes.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the behavior of the soil under seismic movement and what risks affect the structures of homes and the infrastructure that serves them.

2. Identify the typical effects of seismic movements and hurricane forces that exert pressure on wooden or concrete structures and how if they are not attended to, they represent a risk to the safety of the residents.

3. Understand strategies to strengthen the structure of the house to resist forces and how they apply specifically to the way the construction is done on the island through anchoring details.

4. Know different tips to extend the useful life of a home through good care, maintenance, and protection techniques throughout the year.

Hosted by Mercy Corps Puerto Rico

Presenter: Yanel de Angel, Principal at Perkins&Will, co-founder resilientSEE-PR

Webinar: Inventario de vulnerabilidades en mi comunidad, cómo estar mejor preparados. / Community vulnerabilities inventory, how to be Better prepared

This webinar focused on the risks, vulnerabilities and susceptibilities of Puerto Rico, and resilient strategies that Community Centers should consider, particularly in four areas: environment, structure, systems, and content (people, programs, and interior elements of the center).

“ResilientSEE Puerto Rico: The Case for Rethinking Community Centers as Hubs of Resilience,” hosted by the Center for Creative Land Recycling in collaboration with the US EPA and the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

Presenters:

• Yanel de Angel, FAIA, Principal at Perkins&Will, co-founder of resilientSEE-PR

• José Sánchez, PE, Senior Structural Engineer at Tipping Structural Engineers, co-founder of Voluntariado de Ingenieros y Profesionales de Puerto Rico

• Manuel Fontan, PE, Engineer at WSP USA, collaborator resilientSEE-PR

A cascade of recent disaster has rocked the most vulnerable among us in the Caribbean. In this backdrop, the Municipality of Guánica, Puerto Rico, is the test case for a for a renaissance of the purpose-built community center which doubles as a dignified responsive emergency shelter during disasters. Interact with our three illustrious panelists, engineering and architecture practitioners who are part of the pro-bono core of professions from ResilientSEE Puerto Rico. They share how they are pioneering the reconceptualization of the resiliency hub; Principals of strengthened organizational capacity, year-round education, emergency preparedness, food security, health, safety, and social justice equity are the backbone of a new vision for how to weather environmental, social, and economic shocks.

Session 2: During + Active Response – Experience on the Front (10 AM – 10:50 AM ET)

Presenters:

• Jonathan Marvel, Founder, Resilient Power Puerto Rico

• Ron Snyder, Solutions Architect, Cisco Systems, Tactical Operations

• Jose A. Sanchez, Seismic Design Engineer, Voluntariado de Ingenieros y Profesionales de Puerto Rico

• Yanel de Angel, Principal, Perkins&Will and AREA Research / resilientSEE initiative

Moderator:

• Illya Azaroff, President and State Disaster Coordinator, AIA NYS and Director of Design+Lab Architect

ResilientSEE shared three Community Resilient Center projects in the southern part of Puerto Rico: Guánica Emergency Preparedness Plan & Shelter Design; Arenas Community Emergency Center in Guánica; and Programming & Conceptual Design for Tricoche Community Center in Ponce (FEMA Safe Community Room Mitigation Grant).

Session 4: Tools for Engagement + Collaboration – Digital interfaces (12 Noon – 12:50 PM ET)

Presenters:

• Nico Di Tada, CTO and software engineer, Instedd

• Ariana Armelli, CEO, Dorothy

• Ryan Kurlbaum, Associate, Perkins&Will and volunteer at AREA Research / resilientSEE initiative

Moderators:

• Robert Cody, NYIT SoAD

• Farzana Gandhi, NYIT SoAD

• Jim Martinez, NYIT CAS

resilientSEE shared the collaborative work for the Toa Baja Municipality, one of the most affected during hurricanes Irma and María. This works spans three scales of analysis and strategic planning: Island-wide, Municipal and neighborhood. Collaborators include NASA DEVELOP, MIT Urban Risk Lab and Alvarez-Díaz-Villalón.

Hosted by Mercy Corps Puerto Rico

Presenter: Yanel de Angel, Principal at Perkins&Will, co-founder resilientSEE-PR

This presentation focused on 4 myths and realities when it comes to building Resilient Community Centers:

1. Myth: All resilient centers have the same systems and types of community programs. Reality: There are about 8 characteristics that are ideally present, but all the centers are a little different.

2. Myth: If they donate a building to me to transform it into a community center, by putting solar panels on it and painting it, we are already on the right track. Reality: First, you must understand the physical conditions of the building: structure, code, if it is in a flood zone...

3. Myth: Transforming a historic building into a community center is difficult, almost impossible. Reality: It is not impossible, but it does require an expert historic preservation architect who can navigate the regulations.

4. Myth: "It is cost prohibitive to build a community center from scratch (new construction)." Reality: not necessarily! It depends on several factors: size, soil conditions, construction materials, services offered and the necessary equipment.

Presenter: Yanel de Angel, FAIA, Principal at Perkins&Will, co-founder of resilientSEE-PR

Round Panel - Wood on a Mission: Combining carbon benefits, housing, and humanitarian response.

resilientSEE-PR presented ‘Why Not Wood?’, an alternative perspective on the benefits of wood construction in Puerto Rico: carbon sequestration to combat climate change; material ductility behavior during the January 2020 earthquake event; tying to a 500-year-old tradition of wood construction in the Island; and material affordability for residential construction.

Planning responses: From hurricane to earthquake to a global pandemic

Presenter: Yanel de Angel, Principal at Perkins&Will, co-founder resilientSEE-PR

Abstract:

In the past few years Puerto Rico has seen severe hurricanes, a major earthquake, and the pandemic. The confluence of these events layered on an already fragile socio-economic and political situation. While the scene seems dire, it has also been an opportunity to reimagine the future. This session focuses on the role of planning response in disaster relief, climate adaptation and building community resilience.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how an NGO has leveraged collaborations with other NGOs, private sector, and academia to provide disaster relief through planning initiatives.

2. Identify and prioritize community needs to be intentional about the planning response and level of effort necessary to provide strategic insight to community leaders.

3. Calibrate the right scale of intervention whether it is an educational resource, a replicable planning concept or a unique solution.

Sub-Tropical and Tropical Coast Resilience: Social, Economic, and Physical Adaptations in South Florida and the Caribbean

ResilientSEE-Puerto Rico the following three presentations at the Symposium:

Presenter, “Earthquake and Hurricane Home Safety: A Training Resource Guide for Homeowners and Design Construction Professionals,” part of a roundtable session titled ‘Resilience: Engineering Innovations’

Presenters:

• Danniely Staback, Lecturer at University of Illinois and Rhode Island School of Design / ResilientSEE-PR

• Pedro Sifre, PE, Senior Principal and Structural Engineer, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger / ResilientSEE-PR

• Yanel de Angel, FAIA, Principal, Perkins&Will / co-founder ResilientSEE-PR

Abstract:

This session focused on the Island’s hurricane and seismic risks and effects, and how this impact informal housing construction. An overview of construction strategies with concrete and wood techniques framed a discussion on a case study illustrating wood and reinforced masonry solutions.

“Resilient Community Center / Shelter: Planning and Design for the Municipality of Guánica,” part of a roundtable session titled ‘Resilience: Building Design, Performance, and Safety’

Presenters:

• Yanel de Angel, FAIA, Principal, Perkins&Will / co-founder ResilientSEE-PR

• Jesabel Rivera, MPH, CHES, Community Impact & Engagement Solutions, Co-founder Voluntariado de Ingenieros

• Danniely Staback, Lecturer at University of Illinois and Rhode Island School of Design / ResilientSEE-PR

• José Sánchez, PE, Senior Structural Engineer at Tipping Structural Engineers, co-founder of Voluntariado de Ingenieros y Profesionales de Puerto Rico

• Manuel Fontan, PE, Engineer at WSP USA, collaborator resilientSEE-PR

• Ruth Super, Professor at the Boston Architectural College / Principal, Ruth Super Design

After the devastation of the magnitude 5.8 and 6.4 earthquakes took place on January 6th and 7th of 2020 in the southern part of Puerto Rico, two non-profit organizations, one academic institution and various private industry experts joined efforts to provide pro-bono services to one of the most affected coastal Municipalities: Gúanica. While the Municipality had an Emergency Plan, it lacked a shelter program to serve their diverse vulnerable population. The project team created a holistic, replicable, and scalable framework resulting in three (3) community centers on key safe sites of the municipality. These community centers can transform into fully functional shelters during emergency events, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, which are common in the area. The team took the shelter design one step further, and incorporated COVID-19 provisions, anticipating that the occurrence of a combined natural disaster and pandemic event could be possible.

The multidisciplinary team provided site analysis and emergency logistics, programming, conceptual design – inclusive of building systems – and operational policy recommendations. The objectives of the project included:

• Understand the context, risks, susceptibilities, and vulnerabilities of the community:

  • Risks: Hurricane, earthquakes, extreme heat

  • Susceptibility: flooding, landslide, structures collapse

  • Vulnerabilities: damage or collapse of formal and informal settlements; population displacement due to flooding; compromised health, safety, and wellness; disruption of communication and food supply.

• Identify the problems necessary to make this refuge an inclusive place for all members of the community:

  • Population demographics: cross generational

  • All physical abilities

• Develop a conceptual program of spaces to support the needs of the community year-round and specifically during disaster events, when it functions as a shelter.

In this presentation we:

1. Introduced their organizations and how the collaboration formed.

2. Briefly introduced an important resource for community center design - ‘Communities Together: A Guide for Resilient Community Center Design in Island Communities.’

3. Discussed lessons learned from this effort: the complexity of successfully organizing and remotely connecting professionals in different parts of the World to contribute expertise; the process of partnering with an academic institution to educate the local leaders of tomorrow; the different dynamics of working with community and government leaders; and remaining obstacles in providing relief services, securing funding for design and construction, and filling gaps in the process of reaching more communities for direct relief.

Resilient Planning at Multiple Scales: Island of Puerto Rico / Toa Baja Municipality / Villas del Sol Neighborhood

Presenters:

• Gautam Sundaram, Urban Planner Practice Leader, Perkins&Will / resilientSEE-PR

• Ricardo Alvarez-Díaz, Architect and co-founder of Alvarez Díaz & Villalón, Architecture & Interior Design / resilientSEE-PR partner

• Orlando Santaella, Formerly at Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja, now at Puerto Rico Department of Housing, GIS Officer & Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Puerto Rico Department of Housing

• Isabel Olivieri, GIS Officer, Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja

• Ruben Pomales, Planner, Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja

• Larisa Ovalles, MIT Urban Risk Lab, Research Associate

• Adriana Le Compte, NASA Langley Research Center, Lead and Project Coordination Fellow

The challenges that Puerto Rico faces from a climate resilience perspective are complex and cannot be solved in silos. The Island lacks a comprehensive analysis that contextualizes risks and vulnerabilities. At the same time, Municipalities, like Toa Baja, could benefit from an understanding of how they fit into the larger Island ecosystem and region and what are potential solutions that consider the granularity of community needs.

This analysis and design are part of a Resilient Framework Plan for the Autonomous Municipality of Toa Baja, a coastal Municipality with more than 50% of its land in floodable zones. It represents the development of a scalable and replicable resilient planning methodology with a S-E-E approach: Social, Environmental and Economic Resilience.

This framework plan is helping the Municipality build consensus, centralize existing information, identify gaps of data and analysis, synthesize analysis into overarching principles and think strategically about solutions that are implementable.

Through a collaborative initiative, a global and multidisciplinary “Alliance” was formed, committed to designing a sustainable and resilient world. The S-E-E framework – social, environmental, and economic lenses, focuses on a data driven / scientific process founded on the principle that all systems are connected. This process begins with understanding vulnerabilities and risks, dissecting the problem through different lenses, and overlapping these lenses to diagnose problems and find solutions through synergies.

Over the span of two plus years, the Alliance and its collaborators have been providing research, planning and strategic support to the Municipality of Toa Baja’s Office of the Major and Planning Department. The analysis utilizes a variety of lenses and illustrates with clear graphic information how Municipal and Island issues are intertwined at multiple scales. The analytical lenses include hydrology, ecology, topography, social, and infrastructure and development. Several vulnerabilities, including issues with storm surge inundation and location and age of critical electrical infrastructure and informal and social housing, are being tackle with three driving principals in mind:

1. Restore the ecology

2. Develop a Social and Civic Infrastructure

3. Build Smarter

The Alliance partnered with two key collaborators to further support and strengthen Municipal resilience and continue to inform the Framework Plan. Utilizing Earth observation products and scientific data to model flood susceptibility, one of the collaborators to the project developed a flood risk mapping tool, which is now available online as an interactive educational resource for the community and the Municipal Planning Department. Another collaborator developed a Housing Pre-Planning Toolkit, a pilot tool to be rollout free of cost and nationally by a government agency. This toolkit takes the format of a series of workshops that follows an online platform designed to guide local governments in planning for housing recovery and resilience.

A Neighborhood Resilient Framework Plan for the Villas del Sol Community located within the Municipality allowed the team to deploy strategies and adapt resilient concepts at the scale of a neighborhood. At this scale strategies include the following systems: stormwater management, septic, domestic water, electric microgrid, and an open space framework.