NARRAGANSETT BAY SPEAKER SERIES

The Envision Resilience Narragansett Bay Challenge's 12-week Speaker Series brings renowned speakers from around the country to deliver inspiring and informative lectures on sea level rise through the lens of everything from finance and historic policy to human dynamics and decision-making. Lectures are open to participating teams and students, and recordings will be available to the community the following day.

 

January 26 

 

Theme

Introduction of Narragansett Bay and Challenge

Lecture recording here

 

Speakers

Bob Miklos, Architect, Founding Principal of designLAB architects, Technical Coordinator of the Envision Resilience Challenge

Teresa Crean, Barrington Director of Planning, Building and Resiliency

Curt Spalding, Principal, Spalding Environment/Climate Strategies, Professor of the Practice for the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, former USEPA New England Region 1 Administrator, former Executive Director at Save The Bay

 

Suggested Reading

  • Video by Dr. Christopher Pastore – Research on the environmental history from first European settlement in 1636 through industrialization during the 19thcentury


February 2 

 

Theme

Providence and Newport Overview and Studies

Lecture recording here

Speakers

Anne Tate, Professor, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Architecture

Stephen White, Dean and Professor Roger Williams University Architecture

Dr. Austin Becker, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island


February 9

Theme

Wickford, Barrington, Warren Bristol Overview and Studies

Lecture recording here

Speakers

Rebecca Lamond, Supervising Planner, Town of North Kingstown

Teresa Crean, Director of Planning, Building and Resiliency, Town of Barrington

Robert Rulli, Director of Planning and Community Development, Town of Warren


February 16

Theme

Transformative Trends in Climate Adaptation

Lecture recording here

Speaker

Dr. Susanne Moser, Director and Principal Researcher, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting, UMass-Amherst and Antioch University New England


February 23

Theme Speakers

Ben Kirtman, Professor, Department of
Atmospheric Sciences - Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

Grover Fugate, Former Executive Director, Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC)

Sea Level Rise Modeling and Implications for R.I.

Lecture recording here


March 2

Theme

Human Dynamics, Equity and Decision Making in Community Planning

Lecture recording here

Speakers

Linda Shi, Cornell Architecture Art Planning, Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning

Arnold Robinson, Fuss & O’Neill Regional Director of Planning, Former Associate Dean for Community Engagement at RWI 

Suggested Reading


March 9

Theme

Sustainable Urban Landscapes and Regenerative Technologies

Lecture recording here

Speaker

Chris Reed, Co-Director of the Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design Degree Program, Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Bren Smith, Co-Executive Director, Greenwave

Suggested Reading

  • Elizabeth Rush, “The Password: Jacob’s Point, Rhode Island” (pp.1-15), Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018.

  • Lauret Savoy, “Prologue: Thoughts on a Frozen Pond,” “The View from Point Sublime,” and “Provenance Notes” (pp.1-30), Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape, Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2015.

  • Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister, “Introduction: Ecological Thinking, Design Practices” and “Parallel Genealogies” (pp.14-39 ), Projective Ecologies, Cambridge and New York: Harvard Graduate School of Design and ACTAR, 2014.

  • Bren Smith, Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer, New York: Knopf, 2019.


March 16

Theme

Architectural Design and Equity | Resilient Landscape Design

Lecture recording

Speakers

Katie Swenson, Senior Principal, MASS Design

April De Simone, Principal, Trahan Architects

Suggested Reading

Previous lectures

  • Sea level rise, Flooding and Living with water through Design: Lecture recording here with Iñaki Alday 
    Dean, Richard Koch Chair in Architecture, Tulane School of Architecture and Founder, aldayjover architecture and landscape and Dr. Kristina Hill
    Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design, UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design


March 23

Theme

Energy and Mobility

Lecture recording here

Speakers

Nicole Verdi, Senior Manager of Government Affairs and Policy at Orsted

Pamela Cotter, Policy Director, Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) 

Meredith Brady, Administrator, Division of Planning at the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) 

Suggested Reading


March 30

Theme

Midterm Review I

URI, UF, SU present preliminary ideas


April 6

Theme

Infrastructure and Midterm Review II

Lecture recording here

Speaker

Shaun O’Rourke Director, R.I. Infrastructure Bank

Northeastern, RISD, RWU present preliminary ideas



April 13

Theme

Insurance, Risk and Building Healthy Communities

Lecture recording here

Speaker

Carolyn Kousky, Executive Director, Wharton Risk Center at U Penn Economics and policy of climate risk

Suggested Reading

Finance and Real Estate Lecture recording here with John Macomber, Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School and Dr. Jesse M. Keenan Associate Professor of Real Estate, School of Architecture, Tulane University



April 20

Coastal and Historic Preservation Policy

Lecture recording here

Speakers

Lisa Craig, Principal, The Craig Group, SLR adaptation, preservation planning 

Mary Bergman, Executive Director, Nantucket Preservation Trust 


Presentation

Suggested Reading

  • Coastal Policy & Historic Policy Lecture recording here with Thomas Ruppert
    Attorney and Coastal Planning Specialist, Florida Sea Grant, Read Porter
    Senior Staff Attorney Marine Affairs Institute, Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program, Roger Williams University School of Law, Greg Berman
    Coastal Processes Specialist, Woods Hole Sea Grant and Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, and Lisa Craig, Principal, Craig Group

  • Preservation Architecture Studies Lecture recording here with Allan Shulman, University of Miami School of Architecture and Lead on the Miami Beach Buoyant City Report and Jennifer Wellock
    Technical Reviewer, Architectural Historian, National Park Service Federal Response