There ’s no polite way to put this : Florida is screwed . And we ’re starting to see the state ’s infrastructure adapt to the reality of clime modification .
A newfangled pier for St. Petersburg just been approved by the city that takes changing ocean conditions into circumstance . This includes a lightweight social structure that can blow on rising seas and smart technology that ’s resilient in the face of potentially more powerful storm .
Several St. Petersburg piers have graced Tampa Bay , with the most recent “ Inverted Pyramid ” invention opening in 1973 . It was a distinctive wharf , with a boardwalk and tourist - well-disposed diversions . But sustainment on the pier was show to be too expensive , and in the early 2000s , the city began exploring novel alternatives . After a prospicient and controversial cognitive process , including several rejected designs , building on the new pier will begin next year .
In many manner the design byRogers Partners Architects+Urban Designers , Ken Smith Landscape ArchitectandASDtakes the original Great Pyramid material body and adapt it for Florida ’s world : The young angulate pier tower shields visitors from the hot sunlight and bear the brunt of any offshore weather .
But if you take care nearly , the pier is build more like a house on Himantopus stilt . Most of the pier is made up of a large lawn for programming that does n’t require much maintenance and can be dinge by eminent tides . Any amenities like restaurants , for object lesson , are localize higher in the tower . And most of the wharfage itself , let in a “ wet ” schoolroom for scholar and a sportfishing deck , will float . The estimate from the US Army Corps of Engineers says thatsea level in St. Petersburgwill rise 3.2 feet by 2100 .
St. Petersburg is pop off through an exercise that many other oceanfront cities will be facing soon . Miami Beach , for example , is looking at long - terminus solutions thatincorporate the already - rising ocean into the metropolis , more like the duct of Venice , Italy . It ’s not just about the construction of defensive base likeseawalls and barrier islands . It ’s about designing structure which are beautiful today , yet can be conciliatory in the face of an changeable future .
[ New St. Pete Pier ]
ArchitectureCitiesClimate changeFloridaurbanism
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