CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.7. LESSON FIVE: TRANSLATE ECONOMIC AND ARCHITECTURAL RESILIENCE
6.7.1. Continued resilience through historic preservation
An overall history of resilience can be patterned from the city's inception to today. The entrepreneurial spirit and nimbleness of municipal government to enact policies based on economic development and tourism incentives are unparalleled in the state of Florida.43 In municipal discussions, Miami Beach functions almost as a sovereign island-nation, willing to seek solutions and demonstrate leadership in maintaining quality of life concerns, safeguarding historic resources, and continuing the desirability of real estate values and ownership. As Susan M. Torriente, Miami Beach’s Chief
Resilience Officer, stated in the 100 Resilient Cities press release, “Together, we are writing the textbook for addressing sea level rise, reducing our risks, and creating a vibrant and resilient city of tomorrow. Our creative and collective efforts today are the foundation for the future of Greater Miami and the Beaches.”44 Historic resources can contribute robustly to these aims and must be integrated with resiliency planning to provide opportunity for public funding of adaptation in order to be protected from the imminent threat of sea level rise. This will shift accepted notions of historic
preservation, but are necessary for the vital survival of the city’s societal, economic, and environmental
43 “With over $212 million in tax credit investment since 1986 [to 2006], no city in Florida has benefitted as much as Miami Beach. Tax credit projects, together with successful local historic districts, represent the foundation of the redevelopment and renewal of this city, especially the famous Art Deco district;” “Contributions of Historic Preservation to the Quality of Life in Florida,” University of Florida, November 2006, 78.
44 “100 Resilient Cities and The Rockefeller Foundation Welcome Greater Miami and the Beaches into Global Resilience-Building Network,” 100 Resilient Cities, The Rockefeller Foundation, May 25, 2016.
historic assets.
6.7.2. Recommendation for integration in RCAP
Source Item Recommendation
RCAP PP-1 Provide outreach to residents, stakeholders and elected officials on the importance of addressing climate change adaptation and preparedness and develop a program to educate specific interest groups about the Compact, Regional Climate Action Plan, and the benefits of Adaptation Action Area. Consider utilizing the Academy concept to educate elected leaders, academic interests and other decision makers.
Education initiatives should foster advocacy among the community, as well as target historic preservation as a solution for long-term resiliency. In decisions in North Beach, community engagement was critical.45 Another example can be found in the Bridgeport, CT, Rebuild by Design proposal.46
Source Item Recommendation
RCAP SP-28 Continue to implement strategies aimed at maximizing the efficiency of the existing transportation network by all agencies across the region. Many of these strategies also result in greenhouse gas emissions reductions. There is a need for a toolbox of successful strategies that can be duplicated across the region. Agencies should make an effort to collect information that will allow for evaluation of the effectiveness of a strategy in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Institute municipal policies that favor historic preservation and disincentivize new construction as a tool for resiliency.
These aims can align with recommendations of maximizing existing transportation networks, where the maximization of existing buildings should be utilized.
Source Item Recommendation
RCAP SP-24 Consider the adoption of green neighborhood certification programs, such as LEED ND (Neighborhood Development) to guide decision making and development and to provide an incentive for better location, design, and construction of new residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments with the goal of increasing transportation choices while reducing household transportation costs. Incorporate sustainable building and neighborhood ratings or national model green building codes, including but not limited to those defined in Section 255.253(7), Florida Statutes, into municipal codes region-wide.
Demonstrate the inherent resiliency in the historic building stock. Studies that are specific to historic districts can be researched to provide quantitative data, cost-benefit
45 See North Beach case study in Appendix B.
46 “Resilient Bridgeport,” Rebuild By Design, http://www.rebuildbydesign.org/our-work/all-proposals/winning-projects/ct-resilient-bridgeport. Accessed April 3, 2017; Discussed in interview with Jeana Wiser.
ND) with inclusion
of historic districts analyses, and social-benefit analyses on a building-level basis. This model can be used to allow reproduction of findings across varying historic typologies, geographies, and social circumstances while providing consistency.47 Table 6.7: Lesson Five integration to Regional Climate Action Plan
6.8. CONCLUSION
This thesis demonstrates that interdisciplinary and multi-governmental agreement across agencies is necessary to accomplish long-term sustainability in Miami Beach. The economic values of historic preservation that have instituted immense tourism revenues and employment now require an essential shift to reposition Miami Beach as a resilient city of the future, capable of adapting historic resources in the face of sea level rise. Through collective action, the city has chosen to apply funding to resiliency measures, and historic preservation must seek creative solutions to integrate with these goals.
As Michael Kimmelman stated, "Social resilience is inextricable from climate resilience—fundamentally related to creating community & environmental justice.”48 Through literature and policy reviews, an examination of case studies, interviews with stakeholders, and geospatial analyses, the importance of understanding the geology, architectural history, and transitions in development patterns have demonstrated the need for a community-specific narrative through the political, social, and economic progression of an historic preservation ethos. Though the need for bricks-and-mortar solutions such as creative adaptation need immediate research, community engagement and preservation activism have been and will continue to be the bedrock of Miami Beach’s successes as a “vibrant, tropical, historic community”.
A community determines policy decisions, and the influence to enact historic
preservation policies depends on local players to demand a progression of societal events. As green infrastructure has become a commonly accepted capital improvement project for municipalities interested in long-term resiliency, a shift within the profession of historic preservation needs to allow the adaptation and sustainable retrofitting of historic structures to become a relevant contributor to collective goals. Especially as retreat remains an infeasible
47 Interview with Jeana Wiser.
48 Michael Kimmelman during “Cities and Climate Action,” Columbia University GSAPP, Spring 2017 Lecture, April 7, 2017.
Moderated by Michael Kimmelman with guest speakers Jeffrey Hebert, Rodrigo Rosa, and Adam Freed. Response by Kate Orff and Weiping Wu.
option for Miami Beach.49 As Gustavo F. Araoz stated, “an important cultural value of the historic city rests precisely upon its ability to be in a constant evolution, where forms, space and uses are always adapting to replace obsolescence with functionality. This gives rise to the paradox—or perhaps the oxymoron—of the concept of preserving the ability to change.”50 In that lies the prospect to follow lessons learned from Miami Beach’s past dependence on historic preservation for revitalization to recreate its future.
As a city with a population of 92,312 and 7.63 square miles in size, powerful yet flexible municipal decision-making must balance the contributions of historic preservation to define the city’s character.51 Through the address of challenges and opportunities, this thesis presented a thorough analysis of the how past lessons learned can successfully integrate with current resiliency planning.
This research proves the unequivocal confirmation of the relevance of historic resources as a current and future societal asset within a continually evolving set of challenges to encourage citywide policies and funding resources that incentivize adaptation prior to widespread devastation as a result sea level rise.
49 The issue of retreat was dicussed with Debbie Tackett, Preservation and Design Manager for the City of Miami Beach, on March 27, 2017 and it was clarified that this issue was discussed and off the table for the foreseeable future by city planners and commissioners.
50 Gustavo F. Araoz, “Preserving heritage places under a new paradigm,” Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development,” Vol. 1, No. 1 (2011), 58.
51 Data gathered from the U.S. Census, 2015 of Miami Beach, Florida; From the 2016 Environmental Scan, the City of Miami Beach also detailed 23,801 seasonal residents, 32,985 hotel guests, and 30,800 beach visitors, for a total average daily population of 222,079.