2023 Winter Issue - 39

2022 ULI FALL MEETING
Heidi Creighton, Ilana Judah, Rives Taylor, Lindsay Brugger
Preparing Buildings to Weather Climate Change
MAR YANN HAGGERTY
The real estate industry can help
communities build the resilience to react to
the changing climate, according to a panel
of architects speaking at ULI's Fall Meeting
in Dallas. In doing so, they said, the industry
can create value.
" It's important that we show to our investors
that we have thought about this, " said
Heidi Creighton, vice president and head of
sustainability for Skanska USA, during the
panel, titled " Demystifying Climate Preparedness:
How to Prepare Our Buildings and Cities
to Weather Climate Change. "
Panelists focused on resilience, identifying
possible climate-related harms, and acting to
reduce risk. Analytic tools and scenario analysis
can help demonstrate that a building is
prepared to withstand current and projected
risks in a given location, she said.
When thinking about the benefits and
costs of a project, it is important to place a
value on resilience, said Ilana Judah, associate
principal and resilience specialist in
Arup's New York office. Don't think of just the
costs of a climate event, such as downtime
and breaks in continuity. Instead, think of
greater social benefits, too, she advised,
noting that anyone designing or developing
a new building should focus on how its resilience
supports the community.
Individual Responsibility
Panelist Rives Taylor, a principal at architecture
firm Gensler, said North Americans
generally have accepted the reality of climate
change, but just one in five thinks society is
prepared to protect against the effects. He
cited his company's survey research, which
also found that most respondents had taken
some action individually, such as consuming
less or keeping cars longer.
Indeed, resilience starts with the individual,
said moderator Lindsay Brugger, vice
president of ULI's Urban Resilience program.
The panelists all cited personal experiences
that have raised their awareness. Just living
in Houston, " between hurricanes, drought,
plague, and pestilence, " requires resilience,
Taylor said. He was involved with one local
project that has had to recover from three
tropical storms.
Judah recalled that in 2012, she was
supposed to compete in the New York City
Marathon. Instead, she spent the day helping
clean up after Superstorm Sandy. And Creighton
added, " I live in Southern California,
so it's the wildfires, " when smoke makes it
unhealthy to go outdoors.
Loose Fit, Long Life
Beyond the individual, respondents to the
Gensler survey said that they want to see
more societal and government action, with
a focus on renewable power and energy efficiency.
" We need a common plan. We need a
community mind-set, " Taylor said.
Taylor said that at Gensler, design teams
discuss resilience with clients upfront. They
ask, " Do you know what you're facing? And
should we be designing for it? " They want
to make sure that clients have studied, for
instance, the most recent government climate
projections. " We're trying to coach our clients
to be more aware. "
Increasingly, architects are thinking in
terms of " loose fit, long life " -that is, designs
that allow for change, such as future mechanical
upgrades. " I think we're going to see a lot
more flexibility, " he said. That flexibility could
even extend to location, with modular design
and construction that allow a building to be
disassembled and moved if, say, flooding
hazards became too great.
Some questions from the audience raised
specific quandaries. For instance, one Canadian
audience member pointed out that just
half of rental apartments in Canada have air
conditioning-a concern as more frequent,
intense heat waves threaten health. How
should building owners cool properties while
at the same time meeting goals for reduced
greenhouse gas emissions?
First, consider passive measures, Creighton
and Judah recommended, such as out " We
need a
community
mind-set. "
-RIVES TAYLOR, GENSLER
door spaces. Then take a wider view of the
problem. For instance, in a recent Canadian
situation, part of the answer was to look at
the whole year, not just summer, and switch
heating to heat pumps, Judah noted. From an
annual perspective, the overall carbon footprint
can come down.
An audience member from Santa Clara, California,
said local interest in electric vehicles
is high. However, builders are still putting up
projects with just a minority of electric vehicle-ready
parking spaces. Why are consumer
and builder preferences not lining up?
The challenge is anticipating future
demand, Creighton said. Perhaps emerging
technology will help, she added, such
as charging equipment that can be moved
around rather than fixed permanently to
one spot.
" Resilience is ultimately a design opportunity
to make communities better, " Brugger
said, not just for a few days surrounding a
storm or other event, but year round. So, she
asked the panelists, what can concerned
industry members do?
Share the available information about the
role of the built environment, Taylor said, particularly
about resources available to improve
community-level resilience.
Creighton said, " Set sustainability and
resilience goals early in projects. "
Adopt a conservation mind-set, Judah said.
Conserve assets, improve existing buildings.
Resilience, sustainability, and conservation-
" they all interact, " she said. UL
MARYANN HAGGERTY is a Washington, D.C.-based
freelance journalist who writes about business, economics, and
finance.
WINTER 2023
URBAN LAND
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2023 Winter Issue

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