Julie Hendricks is Vice President and Director of EcoServices at Kirksey Architecture. A sustainability consultant and licensed architect, she is also active in volunteering and advocating for green building throughout Texas, and serves on the board of AIA (American Institute for Architects) Houston. If this article interests you, consider attending the Rice Design Alliance civic forum on Wednesday April 25 called "What's the Plan?" that brings together leading national and international voices to discuss Houston’s post-Harvey urban future.

What if broad sections of Houston came to look a lot more like the new home in the Meyerland area shown above designed by studioMET? It is elevated six feet above grade, constructed of flood resistant materials, and built with a mid-level landing at the entrance to transition comfortably to the ground. Resolving design issues related to flood resistance and stormwater management, as this building does, has become more pressing than ever. Will architects respond with appropriate and inspiring solutions?

I’m a member of the AIA Houston Board of Directors and an active member of the AIA Disaster Resilience Task Force that we formed after Harvey. Since that momentous event, our chapter has been grappling with questions brought painfully to the forefront of our attention: Have we been advising our clients correctly about flood risks? Have we educated ourselves about the future risks to our region? Have we been doing our part to help shape the public discourse about a more resilient Houston? Many of us concluded we should be doing more.

The mission of the architectural profession is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of people and to advance the public’s quality of life. As storms like Harvey represent an existential threat that could spell the decline and eventual demise of our city, our role as architects obliges us to act. In addition, our architectural training, encompassing many different fields of expertise, gives us a broad perspective from which to address the technical, economic, ecological, and social challenges with ensuring a resilient city.

Front facade rendering of AIA Houston future headquarters on Commerce Street. Courtesy Murphy Mears Architects.

 

These resiliency challenges aren’t merely abstractions for the AIA. Both our current headquarters and our future headquarters still under construction were flooded and rendered uninhabitable by Harvey. In fact, AIA Houston remains homeless and itinerant to this day, sharing the trials of many of our fellow Houstonians with respect to mold, insurance companies, and FEMA claims. We chose the location of our future headquarters on Commerce Street because of its historic facade and rich urban history in the heart of historic Houston. That history includes an increasing number of catastrophic floods, including three in the last three years. When it is finally constructed, with much thoughtful attention to the problem of flooding, it will be a truly fitting place for architects to contemplate the existing and future structures and infrastructure of Houston.

With all this in mind, the Resilience Task Force has been busy with a number of efforts, laying the groundwork for AIA Houston to continue as a community resource for resilience into the future.

First, we sought to articulate a mission for Houston architects relative to resiliency, relating back to our primary commitment to the health, safety, and welfare of the public, and to AIA National’s acknowledgement of the reality of climate change. Our statement is. “Architects must design Houston’s built environment to be resilient to storm surge, flooding, drought, power outages, and wind damage due to increasing frequency and magnitude of major natural disasters.” In the case of worsening natural disasters, it is our responsibility to design for the maximum safety of our clients and the general public.

Second, we sought to prepare volunteers who would be ready for deployment at our region’s next urgent need. Last September, we succeeded in training 80 AIAH members and engineers as Safety Assessment Program evaluators, and put in 285 hours in volunteer safety assessments. The SAP program trains and certifies licensed building professionals to complete the building safety evaluations that must take place after natural disasters, including windstorms and floods. This program benefitted municipalities all along the Texas coast that were affected by Harvey.

Interior wall section from AIA Houston Disaster Resilience Task Force Homeowner Guide.

 

Third, we have completed a Homeowner Guide to Replacement of Materials After Flooding (pdf), which is posted on the AIAH website. In the coming months, we will add other resources with our best recommendations for homeowners seeking to remove flood-damaged materials, rebuild their existing homes, or build new. The guides are intended to offer recommendations specific to our climate and our region’s typical building methods and constraints.

Finally, AIA members have been actively engaged in outside committees and task forces formed to address different aspects of flood resilience. Among these are the committees formed to recommend changes to stormwater regulations, both for the City of Houston and Harris County. Harris County’s new regulations, applying to structures in unincorporated areas of the County, took effect January 1, 2018, and require structures in the 100-year floodplain to have pier and beam foundations and be raised 24 inches above the 500-year floodplain level. City of Houston changes were recommended by the Stormwater Resilience Task Force formed by Chief Resilience Officer Stephen Costello. The proposed changes narrowly passed by the City Council on April 4, 2018 require that structures within the 500-year floodplain be raised 24 inches above the 500-year floodplain level. AIA Houston members support the principle intent of these measures, though there is disagreement about the level of elevation that should be required. Though expensive, flood mitigation efforts such as elevating structures are likely to pay off significantly in future flooding events. The National Institute of Building Sciences released a study in January 2018 based on the results of 23 years of federal disaster mitigation grants in which they concluded that each $1 spent on hazard mitigation saved $6 in future disaster cost.

While adjustments to the stormwater regulations were certainly needed, these measures will make little difference in the amount of damages produced by flooding in Houston for many years to come. This is because they apply to new structures or those being substantially renovated, which will typically account for less than 2 percent of total housing in a given year. A notable related design issue is that over time structures with occupied floors high above grade will become increasingly common. This creates a challenge—a solvable one, I would argue—in creating a cohesive neighborhood fabric that includes buildings that relate to the street and to the pedestrian scale, as well as allowing universal access. The Meyerland house at the beginning of this article, while not answering every concern related creating an accessible neighborhood fabric, suggests one approach for elevated houses with its stepped transition to the street and material palette that creates a connection to neighboring structures.

Another notable local committee effort could also provide a font of ideas: Houston 2020 Visions, an international design competition being spearheaded by Councilmember David Robinson. The competition will solicit ideas at all scales from people all around the world to create a more sustainable and resilient Houston. AIA Houston strongly supports the idea that we need an inspirational vision for a resilient future. If we can all subscribe to a visionary concept, it’s likely we can work through our disagreements on technical details.

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