08/06/2025The Subway Rat can help keep us dryNY Daily News: What if Pizza Rat told New Yorkers to check their subway route for possible closures before or during heavy rains. Mr. Met co…
08/05/2025An engineer’s guide to the future of flood defenseInteresting Engineering: The $60M federal grant (Rebuild by Design) plus state funds yielded a ~$107–111M project (in 2020 dollars). Civil c…
07/29/2025Flood risk is growing in NJ. Where are our governor candidates on climate? | OpinionNorth Jersey: According to Rebuild by Design's Atlas of Disaster: New Jersey, the state has experienced 14 federally declared major disaster…
07/18/2025FEMA’s Future: Inside Trump’s Push to Reshape Disaster ReliefKatie Couric: “Trump has come out with his guns blazing against FEMA,” New York University’s Rebuild By Design director Amy Chester tells us…
07/15/2025President Trump, Gov. Abbott reevaluate FEMA as Texas floods test disaster responseSpectrum News TX: “FEMA is frontline aid for states across the country,” said Amy Chester, director of Rebuild by Design, a New York Univers…
07/14/2025Lessons from Texas: We aren’t ready for today’s extreme weatherThe Hill: The nonpartisan organization Rebuild by Design notes that 40 states experienced 10 or more major disasters (those causing more tha…
07/13/2025Cityscape: Global BIG architecture group champions sustainability in CaliforniaTimes of San Diego: Rebuild by Design “put designers in the driver’s seat to come up with ideas as to how to protect Manhattan from the next…
07/11/2025New York unveils innovative waterfront ‘wall’ to withstand massive storm surges: ‘Protect the community behind it’The Cool Down: New York City has a new elevated waterfront park, and the first section just opened to the public 13 years after Hurricane Sa…
06/16/2025New York City’s new elevated waterfront – in picturesThe Guardian: ‘The whole idea was to use the park as the “wall” that would protect the community behind it, but also give the community new …
06/12/2025Designing with Vision: Funding Pre-Disaster Adaptation in New JerseyEESI: After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, New Jersey received U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding for two adaptation project…
06/12/2025More Than 1M NJ Residents Live Under High Flood Risk, New Report SaysPatch: In a recent study conducted by Rebuild by Design (RBD), 1.3 million people in New Jersey live in high flood risk areas, with half of …
06/11/2025Two pavilions by nArchitects promote climate resiliency in New York and New JerseyArch Paper: A short PATH ride away in Hoboken is ResilienCity Park (formerly known as Northwest Resiliency Park). Led by E&LP (now AKRF)…
06/06/2025‘BIG U’ East Side Coastal Resiliency project opens in New York CityLeisure Opportunities: Memorial Day (29 May) saw the opening of phase one of the East River Park redevelopment in New York City, with the ne…
06/05/2025Report: 70% of County Property at Flooding Risk by 2050Cape May County Herald: A new report by the public-private partnership Rebuild by Design says Cape May and Atlantic counties have the most p…
05/30/2025Cape May, Atlantic counties have highest flood damage risk in New Jersey over next 25 yearsPress of Atlantic City: Rebuild By Design, the public-private partnership formed after Superstorm Sandy to plan protective measures for futu…
05/30/2025Increased flooding could lead to ‘climate migration’ in NJPBS: Hundreds of thousands of people could be forced from their homes, new report says. “We’re sounding the alarm, and we’re saying, ‘Hey, l…
05/29/2025Section of East River Park reopens after being lifted to fight floodsGothamist: One of the largest projects designed to protect Manhattan from a catastrophic flood has reached a new milestone with the opening …
05/29/2025Project Raises Resilience in MeadowlandsConstruction Equipment Guide: Meadowlands Stadium area in NJ prone to flooding; NJDEP's $150M Rebuild by Design project aims to reduce flood…
05/23/2025First Phase of East Side Coastal Resiliency Receives National Engineering Excellence Award From the American Council of Engineering CompaniesNYC: “The first section of the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project is a unique achievement that was completed ahead of schedu…
05/06/2025Kansas asked for needed disaster relief. Will Trump refuse like he did Arkansas?Kansas City Star: But a disaster here and a disaster there can add up. The “Atlas of Disaster,” a database from New York University, reveals…
05/06/2025Check out these amazing finds on this Staten Island waterfrontSI Live: The beach also has a fantastic view of the rock islands of the Living Breakwaters project in Raritan Bay. The rock islands aid i…
04/28/2025Hoboken’s parks were redesigned to stop floods. Could New York City’s be next?Fast Company: According to a study published today by Rebuild by Design, an organization dedicated to using design solutions to solve comple…
04/28/2025Loss of FEMA program spells disaster for hundreds of communities and their projectsAssociated Press: Disasters affect the vast majority of Americans — 95% live in a county that has had a federally declared weather disaster …
04/25/2025A new solution to street flooding? Hoboken could be the modelNY1: It’s become a regular occurrence here in New York City: A powerful rainstorm overwhelms the city’s infrastructure, causing flood damage…
04/10/2025PTSD likely for people experiencing floodingQueens Chronicle: Amy Chester, director of the NYU program Rebuild by Design, then discussed the potential for green space to mitigate such …
04/08/2025New York Area Could Lose 80,000 Homes to Flooding in 15 YearsHabitat Mag: “The sooner we decide as a city to invest in resilience measures to help neighborhoods adapt — whether it’s to fortify or to mo…
04/07/2025In 15 Years, 80,000 Homes in the New York Area May Be Lost to FloodingNew York Times: “The sooner we decide as a city to invest in resilience measures to help neighborhoods adapt — whether it’s to fortify or to…
04/07/2025FEMA Cuts More Than $300 Million in Disaster Prevention Aid to New YorkNY Times: Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, questioned the wisdom of the cuts, saying the grants were “critical to help us rebuild” after a litany of …
04/01/2025With Chai and Chappell Roan, Play Puts a Spotlight on Flood PreparednessThe City: Amy Chester, director of resiliency nonprofit Rebuild By Design, saw “Flood Sensor Aunty” in Astoria, Queens, in September and was…
03/31/2025Disaster as Trump’s energy policy totally disregards climate changeThe Hill: No part of the United States, red or blue, is exempt from weather disasters. Rebuild by Design, a disaster-mitigation think tank, …
03/28/2025Homeland Security Director’s FEMA closure proposal ignites debate in FloridaNews Break: Amy Chester, director of Rebuild by Design, agrees with Castor’s concerns. She explains that transferring FEMA’s responsibilitie…
03/26/2025Homeland Security director’s plans to close FEMA spark debate among Florida leadersFox 13: Amy Chester, the director of the non-profit Rebuild by Design, has dealt with FEMA a lot over the years and said transferring its re…
03/18/2025New York City: The Big UGreen Builder Media: Rebuild by Design coupled innovation and global expertise with community insight to develop solutions to the most compl…
03/12/2025The Power IssueUrban Omnibus: The stories we share below, reported from the imaginations of climate adaptation expert Amy Chester, CUNY professor and activ…
02/26/2025There were never any climate havens: floods in the midwest, hurricanes in AppalachiaThe Guardian: Back in 2014, Alaska, the Pacific north-west and the midwest were identified in the New York Times as “places that will fare m…
02/24/2025Governor Beshear responds to possible loss of FEMAWKYT: In this map created by Rebuild by Design, a non-profit at New York University, you can see a high concentration of incidents in easter…
02/23/2025Latest Lower Manhattan resiliency project to guard against climate change nearing completionAMNY: The South Battery Park City Resiliency Project (SBPCRP) in Lower Manhattan is completing its final touches just in time for the summer…
02/21/2025Trump wants to cut more disaster recovery funding. Nearly every Congressional district has recently needed the moneyFast Company: It’s a move that threatens the entire country—and some Republican-led districts more so. Every single state has had at least o…
02/15/2025Blowing up FEMA could be its own disasterNewsday: The broader picture: New York had the second-highest disaster assistance by state at $1,326 per capita, behind Louisiana, according…
02/11/2025Can Donald Trump abolish FEMA?Newsweek: States led by Republican governors or represented by two Republican senators tend to experience more disasters and receive slightl…
02/10/2025Gov. DeSantis supports President Trump’s pledge to overhaul how FEMA operatesFox 13 News: A map produced by "Rebuild by Design," a non-profit at NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge, shows that 93% of U.S. counties ha…
02/10/2025Why eliminating FEMA would be a disaster for LINewsday: President Donald Trump wants to revamp the Federal Emergency Management Agency or possibly get rid of it as he recently suggested.…
02/03/2025Who gets more disaster aid? Republican states. Experts explain that and more about FEMAAssociated Press: Federal disaster aid is nearly everywhere. About 94% of Americans live in a county that has gotten Federal Emergency Manag…
01/28/2025In Vermont, a Push to Prevent Flooding or Get Out of the WayYale e360: Vermont’s Washington County, which contains Plainfield and Montpelier, the state capital, ranked third in the nation in total dis…
01/28/2025In Vermont, a Push to Prevent Flooding or Get Out of the WayYale 360: An increase in extreme precipitation events has hit the tiny, mountainous state of Vermont especially hard. As disaster declaratio…
01/15/2025Mapping the United States of DisasterLandscape Architecture Magazine: Between 2011 and 2023, more than 90 percent of the nation’s congressional districts had at least one county…
01/15/2025Mapping the United States of DisasterLandscape Architecture Magazine: Between 2011 and 2023, more than 90 percent of the nation’s congressional districts had at least one county…
01/13/2025Federation of American Scientists Unveils Federal Policy Agenda for Tackling Extreme Heat; Supported by 60+ OrganizationsFAS: The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a non-partisan, nonprofit science think tank dedicated to developing evidence-based polici…
01/13/2025Environment Federation of American Scientists Unveils Federal Policy Agenda for Tackling Extreme Heat; Supported by 60+ OrganizationsAnnouncement Comes as 2024 is Officially Declared Hottest Year on Record; Lingering Effects of Extreme Heat Fuel Catastrophic Wildfires in C…
01/03/2025‘A place for kids to play and a place to store water’: the stormwater capture zone that is also a playgroundThe Guardian: Caleb Stratton, Hoboken’s chief resilience officer, recalls how city officials asked him to lead the rebuilding and recovery e…
12/16/2024Flood Control as a Social Movement: Coastal Communities Adapt to a Wetter RealityHarvard News: Sandy’s arrival in 2012 accelerated the search for water management solutions that combined gray and green approaches. This hy…
12/02/2024Revitalising New York Harbor: The Billion Oyster ProjectGeographical: The benefits of breeding oysters and better sewage- disposal practices have already changed the course of New York Harbor life…
11/25/2024New York City’s ‘Living Breakwaters’ Brace for Stormier SeasBloomberg: Living Breakwaters, one of seven funded projects to emerge from the competition, addresses more than storm surge. It is designed …
11/05/2024How Flood Defenses Can Enhance the Public RealmArch Daily: Superstorm Sandy inundated Lower Manhattan, causing billions in property and infrastructure damage. To protect against future fl…
10/29/2024Staten Island ‘Breakwaters’ Stand as Monument to Sandy and Speed Bump for Future StormsThe City: Less than a quarter-mile off Staten Island’s southernmost shore, eight rocky structures rise from the ocean and run parallel to th…
10/29/2024Resilient Transit = Congestion PricingNew York Daily News: Twelve years ago today, Superstorm Sandy made landfall and devastated New York City and surrounding communities. After …
10/17/2024First Phase of East Side Storm Protection Complete; Popular Playground ReopensMSN: NYC completed a major part of a storm protection project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side this week, at a time when natural disasters are…
10/12/2024How millions of oysters could protect coastlines against climate changeCBC: In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the U.S. eastern seaboard. The storm surge, flooding and winds caused extensive loss of life a…
10/08/20242024 Obel Award goes to 36×36 by Colectivo C733 in MexicoWallpaper: The 2024 Obel Award has just been announced, crowning 36x36 by Colectivo C733 in Mexico its winner. A true collective formed by t…
10/07/2024Experts Say We’re Not Budgeting for More Frequent Billion-Dollar DisastersScripps News: While Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas pick through likely tens of billions of dollars in damage from Helene, another mighty…
10/03/2024$111M coastal resiliency project wrapped up on Staten IslandDredging Today: An innovative $111 million Living Breakwaters project on Staten Island has been completed.…
10/02/2024Landmark Green-Wood Cemetery has a New Job: Protecting Brooklyn from FloodingBrooklyn Daily Eagle: In the wake of deadly storms like Hurricane Ida and Helene, new rainwater-absorbing systems turn hundreds of acres int…
10/01/2024Landmark Green-Wood Cemetery Has a New Job: Protecting Brooklyn From FloodingThe City: In the wake of deadly storms like Hurricane Ida and Helene, new rainwater-absorbing systems turn hundreds of acres into an urban s…
09/29/2024Celebration of $111 Million Living Breakwaters Construction Project Not Dampened by RainSI Live: The much-anticipated construction completion celebration of the Living Breakwaters project may have been dampened by rain on Sept. …
09/27/2024Project to Protect Staten Island Shores and Restore Marine Life is Complete6sqft: After over a decade of effort, a coastal resilience project designed to protect Staten Island shores with livable habitats for sea cr…
09/27/2024Governor Hochul Announces Completion of $111 Million Coastal Resiliency Project on Staten IslandNew York State: Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the completion of Living Breakwaters, an innovative $111 million project designed to i…
09/27/2024Despite Helene’s Record Size And Strength, Property Insurance Market May Weather The StormBis Now: There are simply fewer places today that don’t face some risk from hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, winter storms or other natural…
09/26/2024Redefining Resilience: How the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project Is Shaping the Future of ManhattanWaterfront Alliance: In 2012, Hurricane Sandy wreaked devastation upon New York, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and billions of dollar…
09/18/2024US Rushes to Buy ‘Flood-Zone Homes’ Despite Knowing the Risk of FloodingBangkok Biz News: Americans are making their home ownership dreams come true by buying affordable “flood zone” homes, driving sales up nearl…
09/17/2024Landscape Architects Rise to the Challenge of Coastal FloodingArch Daily: While some communities face extreme heat, others brace for storms and rising waters, and many face multiple impacts.…
09/16/2024New tool helps assess extreme weather risksInsurance Rate Reporter: Rebuild by Design, a research project from New York University (NYU), recently published the Atlas of Accountabilit…
09/16/2024With Another Razor-Thin Election Looming, Georgia Provides Little Clarity on Voting in a Natural DisasterThe Xylom: Although Georgia has seen the lowest number of major disaster declarations over the last decade among the Southeastern states, da…
09/15/2024Home Sales in Flood Zones Are Booming. Here’s Why Buyers Take the Risk.New York Times: New Yorkers are spending billions on houses in flood-prone areas despite growing awareness of the effects of climate change.…
09/12/2024Pioneering Change: The Obel Award Recognizes Transformative Innovations Since 2019Arch Daily: The Obel Award is an international prize seeking to highlight unconventional and original initiatives within the architectural p…
09/09/2024Crisi climatica: i piani anti-alluvione per Lower ManhattanIngenio: New York City, come molte altre città del mondo, sta affrontando la difficile realtà del cambiamento climatico e dei suoi pesanti i…
09/05/2024Building Climate Resilience for Vermont’s EconomyVermont Biz: We’ll begin with an interactive briefing on Rebuild by Design’s Atlas of Accountability, a new virtual tool that allows users t…
08/31/2024Vermont was supposedly safe from the worst climate risks. Then came relentless floodsNHPR: Lyndonville and the surrounding Northeast Kingdom communities aren’t alone in being on that road. By at least one count, Washington Co…
08/31/2024Vermont was supposedly safe from the worst climate risks. Then came relentless floodsMaine Public: By at least one count, Washington County — home to Montpelier — is now tied for being the second-most disaster prone county in…
08/26/2024Dooley talks conservation, adapting to habitat loss at Six and Twenty Book Club meetingNews Journal: The Six and Twenty Book Club met at Jill Borton’s home on Aug. 9. Ruth Dooley was the program leader for the day.…
08/23/2024Extreme weather events are the new normal for CT. Don’t let neighbors die in vain.CT Insider Opinion by Amy Chester and Tom Swan…
08/23/2024Double-whammy: How heavy rains and high tides hurt NYC’s Black and Brown neighborhoodsAmsterdam News: Normally, Estefani Nuñez parks the small yellow school bus she drives each day by the side of her home in the Rosedale neigh…
08/21/2024Rebuild Faster: Tools for Government Contractors Amidst Rising Disaster RisksClover Leaf: Ninety percent of counties in the US have endured floods, wildfires, hurricanes, or other natural disasters since 2011, accordi…
08/20/2024Disaster Dollar DatabaseCarnegie Endowment for International Peace: At its most basic, the goal of the Disaster Dollar Database is to start to make visible federal …
08/20/2024Your Guide to a Disaster Prone Election YearGrist: Hello and welcome to week three of State of Emergency, a limited-run newsletter about how disasters are reshaping our politics. I’m J…
08/20/2024Disaster Dollar DatabaseCarnegie Endowment: The rising pace and cost of disasters is cause for alarm, both because of the likelihood of major disruption in so many …
08/20/2024Your Guide to Disaster Prone Election YearGrist: It’s a truism among emergency managers and disaster experts that no region or area is safe from disasters, but the places in the Unit…
08/16/2024Mitigating New York’s risk from rising sea levelsCapital Press Room: In light of state lawmakers looking to revive New York’s task force on sea level rise, we examine the threat of rising s…
08/09/2024Some North Country towns prepare for rain, possible flooding this weekendNHPR: A new report from the non-profit Rebuild by Design shows that New Hampshire has received 18 disaster declarations between 2011 and 202…
08/07/2024New York is barricading itself against floodsCrains New York Business: New Yorkers jogging along the East River bike path below 23rd Street are finding something new — a 10-foot concret…
08/05/2024New Map Shows Extent of US Climate DisastersClimate Proof: Want to know how often your home county has been hit by extreme weather events? Then this new map is for you. The Atlas of Ac…
08/02/2024Mapping Tool Shows Climate Change Effects Are NationwideGovernment Technology: A new tool from Rebuild by Design shows climate change is an equal opportunity hazard. But spending money ahead of ti…
07/31/2024In the US, Disasters Strike All Over the CountryVoa Learning English: When it comes to disasters in the United States, most people think of major storms and earthquakes that hit coastal ar…
07/30/2024Billion-dollar weather disasters growing in frequencyTulsa World: Separate data reported by the Rebuild by Design project of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University support a …
07/30/2024Arnie Arnesen Attitude July 30 2024Attitude with Arnie Arnesen Podcast: We talk with Amy Chester, Managing Director of Rebuild by Design. The organization has used data colle…
07/26/2024Special select board session will focus on flood mitigation brainstormingWaterbury Roundabout: Rebuild by Design, an outreach effort within the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, last week announced the creati…
07/25/2024Expert predicts next Hurricane Sandy will ‘cause greater inundation and flooding’ to Staten IslandSI Advance: Hurricane Sandy devastated Staten Island in 2012, destroying homes, impacting livelihoods and claiming lives.…
07/24/2024Data shows hurricanes and earthquakes grab headlines but inland counties top disaster listAP: Floyd County keeps flooding and the federal government keeps coming to the rescue. In July 2022, at least 40 people died and 300 homes w…
07/24/2024New data set shows the nationwide impacts of US climate disastersABC: While California led the nation with 34 disaster declarations, some 36 states had 10 or more, indicating the pain of climate change is …
07/24/2024Inland counties more likely to be hit by natural disasters, research showsWCNC: When folks think about natural disasters, their mind immediately goes to the coast, but experts say otherwise. New data shows inland c…
07/24/2024Several Kentucky counties ranked in highest number of declared natural disasters from 2011-2023Fox 56: Kentuckians are no strangers to severe weather. Tornadoes, windstorms, mudslides, landslides, and even flooding are all events that …