Patch: In the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which caused billions of dollars in damage to the East Coast, the federal government made a decision: it wasn’t going to be good enough for communities to simply rebuild things as they were. They had to rebuild smartly to better face the next storm. From that, Rebuild by Design was born: a contest held by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to find the most innovative and effective design solutions to protect coastal areas from the next Hurricane Sandy.

One of the winners was the Interboro Team, a collaboration between Dutch and American designers, to make Long Island’s South Shore more resilient. Their plan focused on Mill River, which starts in Hempstead Lake State Park in Rockville Centre and runs through Lynbrook, East Rockaway, Oceanside and Bay Park before emptying into Reynolds Channel. During Sandy, the river swelled and flooded homes up and down its bank. The Interboro plan, called “Living with the Bays,” would make the river more resilient and less likely to flooding, and would incorporate design ideas that could be replicated near bodies of water all over Long Island. Read more here>>