Design
Beyond Pretty Pictures: An Unusually Ambitious Design Competition for Sandy Recovery
"There is a desperate need for the best science and information about what climate change will mean to families and communities."
It's easy to hate on design competitions. They’re beauty contests, is a common complaint. Exercises in vanity. Divorced from the reality of the streets.
But HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who's spearheading the federal Sandy relief effort, promises that the one he announced this week in New York is going to be different. “The success of this competition will not be measured simply by producing theoretical solutions,” he said. “Rather we want proposals that will have an impact on the ground, in people’s lives.”