In the 5 Years since Hurricane Sandy, AIA-NJ has Increased their Commitment to Resiliency

 

“AIA-NJ is really a model of how to get it done after a disaster.”

~ Illya Azaraoff, AIA

Contributors: Illya Azaraoff, AIA; Bruce Turner, AIA; Justin Mihalik, AIA and Laurence Parisi, AIA Editor: Stacey Kliesch, AIA

 

In 2012, in the weeks and months following Superstorm Sandy, AIA-NJ’s members were getting back on their feet. Many of them located in areas where the storm hit hardest not only were helping their clients to rebuild their homes, but were also figuring out how to rebuild their own. AIA-NJ architects were aware that the State still did not have a plan in place on how to rebuild, and FEMA was months away from updating base flood elevations. So how were homeowners to rebuild?

To make matters worse, the costs for elevating homes and rebuilding were four and five times the amount of available FEMA grants. It was at this time that AIA-NJ Executive Director Joseph Simonetta knew it was imperative for AIA-NJ to be at the forefront of the recovery and the first step was to meet with the Governor’s Office of Rebuilding and Recovery. Joe organized the meeting at the State House and AIA-NJ presented the issues that homeowners were facing approximately $150,000 in structural remediation per structure. Unbeknownst to AIA-NJ, the Governor’s Office was well underway preparing a report on the damage to real estate, infrastructure, and vital buildings.
The result of the meeting and the work of the Governor’s Office was the Reconstruction,
Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation Program (RREM). The program provides up to
$150,000 in grant funding assistance to eligible homeowners to repair or reconstruct their homes. Our Executive Director was vigilant ensuring that the recommendations of AIA-NJ were incorporated into the RREM program, which enabled thousands of residents to rebuild their homes within the following years.

Another achievement of AIA-NJ has been supporting the passing of the Good Samaritan Bill. Until Superstorm Sandy hit, the pushback from the legal community made passage of this bill impossible. In the wake of Sandy, AIA-NJ did not delay in moving on the legislation as the timing was right. Once again, Joe Simonetta knew this bill would be more impactful if the engineers joined on since they too would be performing building assessments along with the architects. Joe initiated lining up sponsors for the bill, drafting the bill and then coordinating the necessary meetings between AIA-NJ and NJ Professional Society of Engineers for the bill’s final language.
AIA-NJ reached out to the the New Jersey State Bar Association and addressed their concerns in order to pave the way for the bill’s passage. Through our executive director’s invaluable relationships with NJ’s key legislator’s, the bill was passed and signed into law by the Governor in 2013. Since passage, this legislation has become a template for other AIA Components as they work to have Good Samaritan legislation passed in their states.

Read more about the Good Samaritan Bill here.
Around the same time, the AIA-NJ Homeland Security Committee, founded by AIA-NJ

Hurricane 101 – FOR ARCHITECTS

for nerds, geeks and dreamers

A soliloquy by Laurence E. Parisi, AIA

 

I recall in architectural school at NYIT, there was a special section in the computer department for architects. Established to enable architectural students to complete their course requirements, I was told architect’s logic did not jive with the computer logic and they were at a disadvantage.  Now, these same computer geeks have adopted the title “Architect”, isn’t that curious, and this hypocrisy continues as a trendy adjective for everything.   As a transfer student, I was placed in a computer major section with the real nerdy geeks.  I suffered terribly, however I made it through by the skin of my Sir Banister Fletcher.

 

In today’s meteorological world, amidst all of the specialized technology and computer modeling, we still find ourselves wondering, what the hell is going on with the weather?  Flooded with weather terminology, myths and folk law, I believe it’s prudent for architects to have a sound working knowledge of the essential scientific terms in order to be relevant. Below I’ve listed 12 weather related terms for a basic 101 understanding.  This will encourage a more ambient nature among architects and the scientists. Although in my mind, I still believe we’re better off with the Farmer’s Almanac. There is no real predictability on storms only tracking and a whole lot of “if this and/or if that” all as determined by the will of God.

 

For starters, you should know that the Hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30.  Sandy landed in New Jersey at Atlantic City on October 29, 2012 with winds of 80 mph.  Architects must have a decent understanding of the terms Cat 1 through Cat 5 as it is important and relative to the Saffir-Simpson Scale. See Below:

 

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale:

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 categorization based on the hurricane’s intensity at the indicated time. The scale provides examples of the type of damage and impacts in the United States associated with winds of the indicated intensity.

The AIA NJ 2018 Design Award Winners are Announced

2018 Design Awards Winners   Thank you to all the participants in the 2017 Design Competition.  All the submissions were of quality, distinction and worthiness.  Below are this years winners. Built – Commercial, Institutional, Educational or Multi-Family Residential Design HONOR Novartis Visitor Reception Building East Hanover, New Jersey Weiss / Manfredi MERIT Edward P. Evans Academic Center Deerfield, Massachusetts Windigo Architecture & Design MERIT New Jersey Institute of Technology New Jersey Institute of Technology – Central King Building Newark, New Jersey Marvel Architects MERIT Novartis Oncology Building East Hanover, New Jersey Weiss / Manfredi MERIT TREC Training Recreation Education Center Newark, New Jersey Ikon.5 architects Built – Interior Architecture   MERIT Healey Family Student Center | Georgetown University Washington, DC Ikon.5 architects Built – Preservation HONOR Pennovation Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania KSS Design Group MERIT BAYADA Headquarters: Interior Rehabilitation BAYADA Headquarters1 Moorestown, New Jersey Historic Building Architects MERIT Hahne & Company Building Newark, New Jersey Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners Built – Residential Design MERIT Green Street Live/Work Princeton, New Jersey Dowling Studios MERIT Guest Barn Fairfield County, Connecticut Windigo Architecture & Design MERIT LEED Hurricane Recovery House Long Branch, New Jersey Studio PEEK / Ancona Unbuilt Projects HONOR Nexus on the Raritan River New Brunswick, New Jersey Design Resources Group Architects MERIT Concord Hospital Shanghai, China HDR Architects & Engineers MERIT Kolos Data Center Ballangen, Norway HDR Architects & Engineers All of the winners will be recognized at the AIA NJ Annual Awards Dinner on January 13, 2018 at Clarks’s Landing in Point Pleasant, NJ.  Please join us for the celebration.

 

AIA NJ Executive Director Joseph Simonetta promoted to Senior Partner at Public Strategies Impact

On October 10, 2017 PSI announced that they had promoted two outstanding members of their staff: top Democratic strategist, William Maer, and AIA NJ Executive Director,  Joseph Simonetta, to Senior Partner.

 

AIA NJ is very proud and excited to extend our congratulations to Joe!

Upon joining AIA-NJ in 1995 as executive director, Joe brought with him the unique experience of already being the Executive Director of two allied organizations, the NJ Professional Society of Engineers (NJPSE) and the NJ Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (NJASLA). This was one of the key reasons why the leaders of AIA-NJ at that time decided to hire Joe and his firm, Public Strategies Impact. Joe’s unique position representing all three organizations enables Joe to share knowledge and information from both organizational and legislative perspectives.

 

 
Organizationally, through Joe’s efforts, AIA-NJ and NJPSE have jointly conducted annual programs for Disaster Assistance Training. To date well over 400 professional engineers and registered architects have been trained to assist in post-disaster building evaluations through the California Office of Emergency Services, a much-needed force of professionals that will be available for the next natural disaster. Since Superstorm Sandy, AIA-NJ has worked with several State and County agencies including the State Police, Office of Emergency Management, the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and FEMA in order for those organizations to be aware of the resource that AIA-NJ has created. In addition, AIA-NJ has continued to host a yearly event on storm preparedness, including Hurriplan. Joe’s ability to leverage his position with NJPSE made this effort farther reaching and strengthened AIA-NJ’s relationship with NJPSE.

 
Legislatively, as the lobbyist for AIA-NJ, Joe monitors well over 250 bills each year that impact the built environment, where many of these bills also affect allied professions. Joe is very keen to understand that by working with allied organizations, AIA-NJ is able to accomplish even more regulatory change for the health, safety and welfare of the public. An example of this is the NJ Building Design Services Act, which governs the types of work that architects and engineers may perform. This Act is enforced by the NJ Joint Committee of Architects and Engineers, which Joe has regularly lobbied on behalf of architects and engineers to ensure that works are protected for both.

 

Learn more about the promotion here.

 

AIA NJ looks forward to a continued, positive relationship with PSI Senior Partner, Joseph Simonetta as its Executive Director. Congratulations, Joe!

New Jersey State Board of Architects Gains Three New Board Members and One Reappointment

The New Jersey Governor’s Appointments office has recently announced Governor Christies’ appointments to the NJ State Board of Architects.

Please join AIA NJ in recognizing:

Appointee Peter Dorne (Harding Township, Morris)
Appointee Robert Cozzarelli, AIA (Belleville, Essex)
Reappointee Albert Zaccone, AIA (North Haledon, Passaic)
Appointee Thomas Fantacone, AIA (Short Hills, Essex)

Gentlemen, your service to the citizens of New Jersey is more appreciated.

 

Robert Cozzarelli, AIA, appointed to the New Jersey State Board of Architects

Robert Cozzarelli, AIA, Past President and Regional Representative for AIA NJ, has been appointed to the New Jersey State Board of Architects by NJ Governor Chris Christie. His term begins immediately and ends April 29, 2022. The Governor’s Appointment’s office expressed their confidence in Bob’s ability to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of this position with diligence and integrity.

 

 

The filling of this vacancy on the State Board has been long awaited by the architectural community, and so this announcement was met with great satisfaction. AIA NJ Immediate Past President Justin Mihalik, AIA, communicated his gratitude to Mr. Cozzarelli while current President Ben Lee, AIA immediately shared the news with the executive board.

AIA NJ Regional Representative Bruce D. Turner, AIA has had the opportunity to work most closely with Bob Cozzarelli and released the following statement,

“Having served with Bob on the AIA New Jersey Executive Committee, especially as his President-Elect in 2004, and now as Bob’s immediate successor on the Strategic Council, I couldn’t be more proud that he has been appointed to the State Board of Architects. I am certain that he is up to the task, and I am confident that he will serve the profession and the people of New Jersey exceptionally well.”

                                                                ~ Bruce D. Turner, AIA

According to the NJ State Board of Architects, the Board is responsible for protecting the public’s health and safety by determining the qualifications of architects seeking licensure in our State, establishing standards for practice, and disciplining licensees who do not adhere to those requirements.

The practice of architecture is the rendering of services in connection with the design, construction, enlargement, or alteration of a building or a group of buildings and the space within or surrounding those buildings, which have as their principal purpose human use or habitation. These services include site planning, providing preliminary studies, architectural designs, drawings, specifications, other technical documentation, and administration of construction for the purpose of determining compliance with drawings and specifications.

Cozzarelli is an award-winning architect and planner with over 30 years of professional experience. He specializes in educational, recreational, institutional and residential design for federal, state, municipal and private-sector clients.

Knowing Sandy

By: Susan P Bristol, AIA, NJ PP, LEED AP                                                               spbarch@gmail.com

SPB Architecture LLC, Rocky Hill, NJ

609.924.7989

Spbarchitecture.com

(Adjunct Professor at NJIT, CoA+D, School of Architecture)

 

 

Architecture, having been consumed by the movement toward sustainability in recent decades, now has a new mandate. Resilience.  In post-Sandy NJ (and NJ River basins since the mid 20th century) the questions have been: How do we control water? How do we defend against other natural forces that can and have wreaked devastation? What are our policies toward construction on sites that have flooded multiple times? How do we build for future disasters to protect expensive infrastructure, architecture and neighborhood investment? What is the role of the architect in mitigating disaster?

Now the big question now is: how do we live with water?

Those of us in the ‘trenches’ of designing, building, planning, engineering and construction have been operating on multiple levels. In my Garden State Studio resilient design course at NJIT in Spring of 2013, I began using the term ‘Un-Building’ just after Sandy to think about treading more lightly on fragile (barrier island) ground, in floodplain redevelopment, in dense neighborhoods and coastal constructions. This does not mean do not build or do not re-build, it means that we need to examine our footprints: our constructed and environmental footprints.  If you think that Un-building is a provocative term for a profession that depends on building, then you are correct. It is meant to alert us to the conflicts embedded in our profession and to make us think.

 

The first thing that people think about resiliency after a storm, is that we need to update the building codes (government) and the second thing is how we meet those codes (property owners, architects, engineers, contractors). As I reminded folks at the 2013 Mayor’s Summit (sponsored by the Center for Resilient Design at NJIT), building codes are a minimum, FEMA codes do not even consider sea level rise, and best practice design must take many other factors into account.  Architects are well positioned to add nuance, insight, resiliency and vision to projects beyond the minimal codes.  However, some of those factors, it turns out, include human fragility and emotions.  Recently, the Nobel prize winner in Economics was announced.  Professor Rickard Thaler’s field is behavioral economics. Architects could learn something by his attention to the human component which is not rational.

 

We cannot assume that experiencing Sandy was a ‘wake-up call’ for everyone.  In fact, the emergency recovery mode pushes some to focus on ‘return to normal’, rebuild as before, make it look like nothing happened.  Our professional inclination is to do it better, do it differently, use design to integrate new codes into our work.  At our best, we

Sandy

A Poem by Susan P Bristol, AIA, NJ PP, USGBC  (1.19.14)

 

A footprint shows that we were there

A postcard says ‘wish you were here’.

 

The sandcastle building was there

The waves come in and wash it where?

 

Survey measures, land is here

Sign says, build it there

Sandy comes, land is where?

 

Reclaim lives, here & there

Rebuild homes, site was where?

 

Property lines erased and blurred

There goes here and here goes there.

 

False foundations hold on tight

To capsized land nowhere in sight.

---

Author’s Bio:

SPB Architecture LLC

Susan Pikaart Bristol      AIA, NJ R.A, LEED AP, NJ P.P.

SPBArchitecture.com  p.o. box 814, rocky hill, nj  08553

spbarch@gmail.com   609.924.7989

 

 

Susan Pikaart Bristol is a member of the AIA, a Registered Architect, NJ Professional Planner and LEED Certified in Green Design.  She is the principal of SPB Architecture LLC, a practice providing master planning and full architectural services, as well as vision plans and landscape design collaborations.  Her work has ranged from regional-scale planning and community design to small structures and residential projects. Susan is a native of NJ and is recognized as a resilient design professional that has contributed to Storm Sandy recovery efforts.  She has two degrees (B.S. Arch & M. Arch) from the University of Virginia in Architecture.  Design excellence and critical thinking are at the core of her professional and educational activities.

SUPER STORM SANDY- FIVE YEARS AFTER Lessons learned….. or not.

By Laurence E. Parisi, AIA

New Jersey has approximately 141 miles of shore coastline, a substantial amount of land along the Hudson River, and many inland marshy estuaries; a significant amount of these lands in our state are still unsettled and in disrepair from Superstorm Sandy. In retrospect, what have we learned?   On my trips down to the Jersey Shore, I see that many owners of homes, with the financial means, have rebuilt pursuant to FEMA regulations.  Other homes, whose owners may be without the abilities to repair, remain in uncertain condition. Notably, the more affluent communities appear the same as they did pre-Superstorm; as if they were not pressured to raise their homes during reconstruction. It appears as though most of the home raising occurred in moderate-to-middle income areas.  In the more densely populated coastline towns like Atlantic Highlands, the home raising is not a pretty sight.  It has been a slow process as more homeowners have to reconcile with their own circumstances.   For these owners, dealing with governmental restrictions related to home insurance and FEMA regulations have proven to be an arduous task.

 

      

 

My office is on the westerly bank of the Hudson River; around here, it appears that that post-Superstorm coastline construction advisories and warnings are not well heeded.  Shortly after Sandy tore apart the coast along the Hudson River, even up North into New York State, new buildings are being constructed on the river banks. One of these buildings is directly in front of my office on the Hudson.  

On October 29, 2012, when Sandy was approaching New Jersey, I went to my office early in the morning to tape windows and cover all the drawing boards and computer stations.  This was done in an effort to protect these items from water damage, should the roof have been torn off my building (my office is on the top floor).  The water of the Hudson had already risen over the banks and was 400 feet inland (pictured).  We got the full blast of Sandy when the storm made landfall at around 8:00 PM that evening. when she landed.   At my office building, there were over 3 feet of flood water, from the tidal surge, in the ground floor lobby. The 200-bed hospital and nursing home adjacent to my office had to be evacuated and shut down. A major PSE&G electrical sub-station just north of my office was flooded and damaged.

 

Two years after Superstorm Sandy, an outpatient medical facility, ancillary to the hospital, was constructed about 171 feet from the Hudson River coastline; this new building is closer to the Hudson than my office building.  The construction costs had to be a minimum of 15 to 20 million dollars. The soil required a lot of piling. Now, why would anyone build such a critical facility in a location that was inaccessible during, and for days after, Superstorm Sandy? Although the photograph shows a limited amount of raised parking, this building will be largely inaccessible in a similar flood disaster.  

 

In a similar situation, a nearby electrical substation was raised approximately sixty feet above the grade, in order to keep the station at its present location despite the potential for flooding (pictured). Notwithstanding the new raising of the facility, it is still a location vulnerable to flooding and becoming inaccessible.  It seems as though these risks are not adequately being considered.  Additionally, please note the appearance of these buildings that were likely designed by engineers.

          

 

The lesson to be learned from Superstorm Sandy is to carefully design and plan for disaster.  There is a practical common sense approach to these situations.  We must be cognizant of the fact that certain critical need facilities like hospitals, power stations, and the like should not be constructed in areas vulnerable to flooding. Good planning and good design is a must in order to make our communities safe and viable.

All photographs are the property of Laurence Parisi, AIA

 

Author Bio:

Laurence Parisi, AIA is a past president of AIA NJ, past president of the Architects League of Northern New Jersey and current and founding Chairman of the AIA NJ Homeland Security Committee.

Editorial Disclaimer

The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author(s) and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of AIA NJ or any employee thereof. AIA NJ makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information in this article and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.

AIA NJ reserves the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner it sees fit comments that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, or is otherwise unacceptable.

 

AIA NJ members, Win Free Registration to Quad States!

All AIA NJ members registered for the Quad States Conference by October 25th will get the Early Bird Discount…but ONE lucky registrant will get FREE REGISTRATION!

Join AIA New Jersey, AIA New York, AIA Pennsylvania and AIA Connecticut
in November for Quad States Conference.

Early Bird Ends: October 25th

If you register by tomorrow,  you are automatically entered in the RAFFLE  

to win a FREE REGISTRATION. One registrant will be randomly selected by AIA New Jersey to have the cost of the registration fee reimbursed.

DATE: November 9 – 11, 2017

TIME: All Day

LOCATION: Albany Capital Center, 55 Lodge St. A, Albany, NY

Contest rules:

1. Winner must be an AIA NJ member in good standing.

2. Winner must be registered for Quad States and paid in full by the close of Early Bird Registration on October 25, 2017.

3. Winner will be selected at random by AIA NJ conference management staff.

4. Winner will be announced on November 1, 2017.