Waterproofing New York was published by Urban Research (UR), the imprint of Terreform, directed by Michael Sorkin. The book investigates alternative urban infrastructural systems to overcome catastrophic results of environmental problems occurred in New York-like many other global cities. 

Written by Denise Hoffman Brandt-RLA, is the Director of Landscape Architecture and an Associate Professor at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, and Catherine Seavitt Nordenson-an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the City College of New York and Principal of Catherine Seavitt Studio, the book can be conceived as an ''guiding-handbook'' in order to understand how do cities recover themselves after destructive environmental disasters? What can be alternative/pragmatic urban design solutions in an urban scale to create much more co-ordinated city? 

''With two destructive tropical storms in two years, New York City - is entering a phase of adaptation to catastrophic climate events which are a result of carbon cycle disruption by human, urban, and industrial practices,'' stated in the description.

''Recovery will require more than a simple fix; it will necessitate systemic adaptation to escalating tidal and storm surges, precipitation, and wind events through the construction of new urban landscapes that have the capacity to merge social, cultural, and environmental forces.''

Waterproofing New York gathers some of the most influential and thought provoking municipal leaders, engineers, planners, social scientists, and designers to explore the impact of past and future storms on New York City’s infrastructural systems: Water/Waste, Power/Data, Circulation/Fuel, Parks/Recreation, and Shelter. 

The book features essays and projects collected here use these urban operating systems to open speculation on possibilities not simply for waterproofing the city but for thinking beyond it to seek wider means of coordinated yet opportunistic, pragmatic, and inventive city design. 

Waterproofing New York is intended to support an emerging skepticism of a singular ''big fix'' as well as of the unplanned, uncoordinated, shoring up of individual enterprises and discrete sites that will ensue in the absence of design and civic leadership.

Contributors include: Lance Jay Brown; Nette Compton; Deborah Gans; Jeffrey Hou; Lydia Kallipoliti; Signe Nielsen; Kate Orff; Sandra Richter; Frank Ruchala Jr.; Thaddeus Pawlowski; Janette Sadik-Khan; Hilary Sample; Judd Schechtman; Gullivar Shepard; Michael Sorkin; Byron Stigge; Erika Svendsen, Lindsay Campbell, Nancy F. Sonti and Gillian Baine; Georgeen Theodore.

You can purchase the book only for $40, plus see other books here.

Urban Research of Terreform publishes book series devoted to cities and their future. The series claim that no single approach is adequate to the promise and problems of the urban, UR publishes a wide range of designs and analyses. 

All images courtesy of UR

> via Urban Research