
Beacon Hill Asked to Expand Waterfront Flood Defenses
Researchers are urging state legislators to allow experimental new coastal resiliency projects, providing a guide for protecting waterfront real estate from climate change.
Researchers are urging state legislators to allow experimental new coastal resiliency projects, providing a guide for protecting waterfront real estate from climate change.
Once mainstays of the city’s economy, harborside piers now figure prominently in Boston’s attempts to protect against sea level rise. But engineering and financial challenges pose the kinds of barriers that won’t keep the water out.
Dorchester Bay City developers will construct a nearly 23-foot-tall flood barrier designed to form a continuous coastal resiliency defense to South Boston’s Moakley Park, reflecting anticipating sea level rise.
The summer of 2021’s record-breaking heat and precipitation in Greater Boston is adding urgency to additional requirements for commercial buildings and development sites and designs that can withstand expected extreme weather in coming years.
This month’s heavy rains follow a year in which coastal communities in the United States experienced record high-tide flooding, a trend that federal ocean researchers say is expected to continue into the future “without improved flood defenses.”
While developers are almost universally viewed with suspicion, we are an integral part of the effort to deliver solutions for the pressing issues of climate change and equity in the communities we revitalize.
Rising sea levels are expected to bring new rules for new construction and retrofits to buildings in Boston’s flood-prone neighborhoods.
A master-planned development on 34 acres could bring 1,740 housing units and 4 million square feet of commercial space to the Dorchester waterfront.
Protecting Boston’s vulnerable real estate from flood damage in coming decades could require creation of new districts to collect payments from property owners, and a new cabinet-level resiliency czar and department at city hall to oversee the defense strategy.
At last, Boston appears to have a plan to protect one of its most important assets from sea level rise with more than sandbags and hope.
As the need for more housing and mixed-use spaces and the demand for a waterfront lifestyle continues to grow, the real estate and design industry must broaden their scope when it comes to sustainability and resiliency.
Massachusetts is currently the only state in New England that does not have some type of commission looking at the cost and funding solutions necessary to protect against and avoid risks posed and expenses incurred by climate change.
With potential for massive property damage in Boston neighborhoods in the path of rising seas, the city is studying funding mechanisms to pick up the multi-billion-dollar tab in coming decades.
Developer Related Beal’s proposed 1.1 million-square-foot development overlooking Fort Point Channel could be one of the first properties protected under a city plan to flood-proof waterfront properties.
Climate Ready Boston projects that by the year 2070 the temperature may reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day of the summer in eastern Massachusetts. The buildings and systems that we have created over the past 100 years were not designed to deal with such conditions.
Boston’s Seaport is a thriving, robust neighborhood about to deliver more than 30 million square feet of premier office, residential and retail spaces across hundreds of acres of open space, waterfront views and cultural institutions. While commanding some of the highest rents and sales prices in the city, there is an underlying concern related to climate change, resiliency and sustainability.
Michael Fallon was appointed president of The Fallon Co., just last month, but the 30-year-old real estate executive is already thinking about the long-term legacy of the Boston-based development company founded by his father Joseph in 1993.
Winter has come and gone, and while we appreciate the good fortune of a mild start to 2019, metropolitan Boston and areas of coastal Massachusetts still need to prepare for the storms to come.
Too often when developers fail to prepare for climate change, taxpayers are called upon to bail them out when the inevitable damage happens. But now it seems that cities across Massachusetts and even the state could increasingly be on the hook financially if they don’t take substantive steps to plan for these changes.