uprising [thesis]

The challenge of rising sea levels is already affecting cities and countries around the world, and poses an existential threat to Miami, a city that is wedged precariously between the Atlantic ocean and the Everglades just twelve feet above sea level. Florida has both the resources to effect change and the potential to be devastated in the absence of it. By the end of this century, Miami will be faced with six feet of sea level rise, regardless of our carbon mitigation efforts moving forward. This project is a holistic solution focusing on three goals: 1. Provide a home for researchers and scientists from around the world to collaborate; 2. Transparently educate the public on the effects of and solutions to climate change; 3. Actively remove pollution and carbon from the air and water. In this way, this single building has the potential to change the climate in both the near and long-term future.

The site for this project is 1 Herald Plaza on the waterfront north of Downtown Miami. It is the former site of the Miami Herald, a newspaper renowned for its reporting on climate change. This site was chosen for its waterfront access, proximity to mass transit, and prominence on the Miami skyline.

Over the next 100 years, Miami will face an unprecedented disaster. Much of the city and its western suburbs will succumb to rising sea levels from both the east and west. Porous limestone which underlies all of Florida prohibits the use of flood walls which can be used in other flood-prone areas; seawater infiltrates the land, surging up through storm sewers and lawns.

Miami is an ideal location for a climate change research center, already in close proximity to numerous universities and climate-related institutions. It is additionally an international, diverse city, drawing people from around the world.

The site at 1 Herald Plaza is currently an empty lot surrounded by abandoned parking lots. The Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts center is nearby, but the neighborhood is largely devoid of street life, with extreme temperatures and a lack of shade discouraging outdoor activities. The new landscape is elevated to 25' above sea level at the lobby, gently sloping down to street level and housing parking underneath. The spiral encourages the public to move into the site while overhead shading screens and passive ventilation make the space comfortable.

As the sea level rises, the building will become an island in the absence of action from the government and other property owners. Likely the only way forward for Miami will be to abandon the low-lying suburbs in the west, consolidating along the naturally higher ground along the coast, and artificially raising the ground level to compensate for the rising sea.

This building is a prototype: it is an example of the farthest reaches of our technology and the very realistic possibili- ties of the imminent future. It is designed to withstand the severe storms and flooding that have repeatedly devastat- ed South Florida and are only worsening. It will lead the re- silient design movement in Miami and around the world as an icon of our power to overcome the slow violence of cli- mate change that threatens life on Earth.

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