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eDesign Dynamics is honored to be a part of the team, lead by Olin, that has just been awarded the 2023 ASLA / IFLA Global Impact Award, part of the American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Professional Awards in conjunction with the International Federation of Landscape Architects. 

The Caño Martín Peña Comprehensive Infrastructure Master Plan was developed to serve this Puerto Rican district’s needs by improving their collective health and quality of life, incorporating nature-based strategies and climate change risk analysis to develop holistic solutions while safeguarding the communities’ deep social bonds as the fundamental link. The plan is grounded in a social and environmental justice framework, surveys and consultation with residents and community leaders, as well as coordination with Commonwealth and Federal agencies.

eDD led the Hydrology and Hydraulics (H-H) Modeling and Green Infrastructure portions of the project, with Eric Rothstein, PE (eDD Managing Partner), Franco Montalto (eDD Founder), Kyle Taylor (eDD Project Engineer) and Sanaz Borhani (eDD Modeler).

The Jury, made up of professionals from the United States and abroad, stated:

[It’s a] resiliency-oriented development. This plan integrates climate mitigation and flood protection with new belts of greenspace, community connectors, housing, and power to form a possibility of multivalence. It is a plan in which specific landscape design strategies can positively impact the environment and, therefore, quality of life while promoting resilience. The analysis is thorough and addresses the intent of ecological improvements. Cultural understanding is also prevalent in the narrative and exhibits.”

Read more about the project here>

Read about the other award categories and recipients here>

Dr. Franco Montalto, eDD’s Founder and the Director of Drexel University’s Sustainable Water Resource Engineering, was announced the winner of the INNOVATION AND COLLABORATION AWARD (in the Research Category) by the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin (WRA). He’s being honored for his “dedicated leadership to advance cutting edge science and innovative technologies to protect communities from climate related flood risk and to enable historically disadvantaged communities to proactively partner with Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority to improve their neighborhoods.” The 2023 WRA Awards recognize leadership, innovation and excellence in the science and management of water resources within the Delaware Basin. The awards will be presented at WRA’s 40th Annual Awards Gala on September 21st at the beautiful Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia (pictured).

Read about all the award recipients here>

eDD President, Franco Montalto, was interviewed by Philadelphia’s NBC10 about ways to adapt to extreme weather. He highlights the importance of working with community members in developing local solutions that address both climate and other needs. 

Watch the video here>

The project started in the early phases of the pandemic when places like cooling centers, recreational centers, libraries, and senior centers where people went for relief from high temperatures were closed; Montalto and his Drexel University team came up with a strategy that allowed people to cool in place by developing shade structures with an umbrella that could be deployed in front of peoples’ city homes. With community input, the structures evolved into a bench with a planter so that even high winds wouldn’t dislodge the umbrellas. The shade stations not only provide relief from the heat, but they also serve as a community amenity: they’re aesthetically pleasing, provide opportunities for social engagement, and have created jobs as the project has expanded into five different neighborhoods!

Watch the full news segment here>

From the article:

Going forward, better land use planning and engineering could help communities mitigate the dangerous flooding that can come with heavy rain. This could look like soft surfaces that water can sink into, depressed basketball courts that can hold flood waters, or streets that are designed to convey water to a safe place, said Franco Montalto, a professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Drexel University and president of eDesign Dynamics LLC. 

“You start to think strategically about how to use the landscape to direct the water into places where it can flood,” Montalto said. “You’re not trying to necessarily prevent the flood. You’re trying to make the flood occur safely.”

Humans can also limit future increases in heavy rain by rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years.

Read the full article here>

From the article:

For Franco Montalto, a flooding expert and engineer, decades of research were suddenly amplified by a real-life emergency in the Adirondacks, where he and his family were on vacation this [summer].

In the middle of the night, they were awakened by forest rangers knocking on the door of their lakeside cabin. The house was surrounded by a foot of water, and they needed to evacuate.

“It was profound to experience these conditions firsthand,” he said.

Dr. Montalto, a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia who is writing about flooding as a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, knows better than most that climate change is producing hard-to-predict and shifting weather patterns that can trigger “cascading events.”

Flooding can occur “for different reasons at different times in different places,” he said in a recent interview.

Catastrophic rainfall caused overwhelming floods in parts of the Hudson Valley and elsewhere in the country [in July of 2023], leading New York officials like Gov. Kathy Hochul to warn of extreme weather that would be “our new normal.”

Continue reading the article here>

eDesign Dynamics’ founder and Drexel engineering professor, Franco Montalto, co-edited a recent report that localized data to create a snapshot of climate change in Philadelphia. “The Philadelphia Inquirer” covered its release by interviewing Montalto: “‘The groups raised a bunch of questions about the built environment, about transportation systems, about energy systems, buildings, and what we need to know to make those systems continue to function despite climate change,’ [Montalto] said.”  

Read the ARTICLE here>
Read the REPORT here>

We’re thrilled and honored to receive an ASLA Award! The New York chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects gave Quennell Rothschild & Partners, which includes eDesign Dynamics, an Honor Award in the “General Design – Small Firm” category for Ferry Point Park East Waterfront (pictured). Here are the jury comments on our project:

“Ferry Point Park East Waterfront designed by Quennell Rothschild & Partners demonstrates how landscape architects are leading the way on coastal resiliency and natural solutions to transform urban edges. Focused on habitat creation, the primary goal was restoring wetlands and native maritime grasslands to this brownfield site, previously a garbage dump. The site provides sweeping vistas of the waterfront, the city, and the Whitestone and Throggs Neck bridges. The project not only improves waterfront resiliency but provides an educational and health amenity to a low‐income neighborhood that had suffered decades of pollution from illegal dumping. Landscape Architectural design services were contracted by the New York City Parks Department through their Design Excellence Program.”

The Ferry Point project will be exhibited all this month through April 30th at the Center for Architecture in New York City: centerforarchitecture.org

Read more about all the winners here>

The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) is a 20-member independent advisory body that synthesizes scientific information on climate change and advises NYC policymakers on local resiliency and adaptation strategies to protect against rising temperatures, increased flooding, and other hazards. eDesignDynamics’ president and founder, Dr. Franco Montalto, is proud to serve on the NPCC, which informs the City’s ongoing efforts to ensure that New York City is prepared to withstand and emerge stronger from the threat of climate change. This includes coastal protections in all five boroughs as well as programs to increase social resiliency, strengthen small businesses, and harden critical infrastructure.

Visit the NPCC page which lists Members and Recent Reports>

After a yearlong design and engagement process with the City of Hudson, the NYSDEC/Hudson River Estuary program, and The Hudson Valley Collaborative (HVC) consultant team (Assemblage, youarethecity, and eDesign Dynamics), Assemblage shared a final climate-adaptive design report for Henry Hudson Riverfront Park. We’re honored to have been a part of it. 

Read the Report here>

eDesign Dynamic’s Franco Montalto went on the hour-long environmental radio show “Planet Philadelphia” to discuss flooding and climate change, both locally and globally. 

Listen to the full show here>