We’re excited to share that Living Breakwaters has won the 2023 Obel Award in the focus area of ADAPTATION. Read a statement from our Founder, Kate Orff below:
“Winning an architecture prize is important for a project like this, which involved so many different people working together with a shared purpose. It is a true encouragement for community members, elected officials, landscape architects, ecologists, and engineers, to come together and develop coastal adaptation projects wherever they are. It’s also an acknowledgement of the importance of thinking about design at a holistic, planetary scale. Our protective natural systems are in various stages of decline globally, and in order to repair them, we have to think and design systemically to tie the pieces back together. It’s an incredibly bold, creative act. Hopefully, this award can emphasize this point: that nature is a matter of design now and that we have to work fast, and to work together.”
This project has been almost a decade in the making and we are so grateful to the people and organizations that all helped it take shape. Thank you to the jury at Obel Award!
Learn more:
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Client:
NYS Office of Resilient Homes and Communities (RHC)
Collaborators:
COWI (Design Team)
Arcadis (Design Team)
SeArc Ecological Marine Consulting (Design Team)
WSP (Design Team)
MFS Engineers (Design Team)
Prudent Engineering (Design Team)
The Billion Oyster Project (Engagement)
Weeks Marine (Construction Contractor)
Ramboll (Construction Management)
Baird (Construction Management)
AKRF (Environmental Review & Permitting)
U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD)
Rebuild by Design
Federal, NY State, and New York City Agencies