Who’ll Stop the Rain: Urban Design with Nature

Marines patrol past flooded Houston home. Photo by Lance Cpl. Niles Lee.

“Long as I remember, the rain been comin' down.

Clouds of mystery pourin', confusion on the ground.

Good men through the ages, tryin' to find the sun.

And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain?”

John Fogerty’s lyrics from 1970’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain” became a devastating reality in 2017 when catastrophic storms hit the Texas Gulf Coast, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Millions of people were impacted with record amounts of rainfall – in some cases, a year’s worth in a few days! Flooding is a necessary natural phenomenon for a healthy ecosystem, but too much and in the wrong place is a deadly combination. But just how much flooding are we talking about?

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Healthy by Design: How Design Impacts Well-Being

The Alexander Hotel. Image © Gensler

On a typical day most Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors. Yet even from inside enclosed walls, humans act as giant filters for our environments. From the water we drink to the air we breathe, our environment impacts how we feel, work and live. Is the air quality poor? Is there enough daylight? And is there any connection to nature?

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Natural Disasters Loom. Is Your Real Estate Portfolio Ready?

The price tag for natural disasters is rising. Rives Taylor explains how real estate owners can develop resilient portfolios in his Apgar Award-winning article, “Minimizing Risk in an Era of Resilience”

The price tag for natural disasters is rising.

The price tag for natural disasters is rising. According to the Urban Land Institute, (ULI) floods, fire, drought and windstorms caused $1 billion in losses within the United States last year. Communities, taxpayers, and individuals are increasingly finding themselves on the hook for the cost of clean-up and reconstruction, allocating significant funds to rebuild in the aftermath of nature’s unpredictable wrath.

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Toward Resilient Cities

With historic landmarks like the Ferry Building immediately adjacent to the Bay, rising sea levels would have a severe impact on the San Francisco Bay Area." Photo courtesy of Flickr user sirgious.

In November 2012, as the Bay Area hosted Greenbuild—the world’s largest conference dedicated to sustainable building—designers across our region and beyond gathered to evaluate how urban planning solutions can bring value (and stability) to our cities.

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