Learning through competition : resilience on the Jersey Shore after Rebuild By Design

Abstract

and regions have gained a sense of urgency to plan and prepare for environmental change. Cities, nonprofits, and the federal government are increasingly adopting the architecture field's design competition model as a tool for resilience planning. Competitions promise to yield creative design ideas that would not come to light through traditional planning processes, and to foster public interest and support for investment in climate resilience measures. Little research exists, however, evaluating the practical implications of design competitions or how their outcomes are perceived by local planners and residents. This thesis examines the potential for competitions to foster a shift toward resilient design in local planning practice. The three municipalities that serve as cases -- Asbury Park, Keansburg, and Toms River, New Jersey -- each received detailed visions and plans for substantial resilience projects through the federal Rebuild By Design competition, but did not win any financial support for their implementation. Through interviews with local and county-level planners and elected officials, this thesis finds several positive effects of the competition experience on local planning, including new awareness and interest in longterm visioning and cross-boundary collaboration. Findings also include a set of ongoing challenges -- primarily, limited local capacity and regional politics -- against which the competition alone is inadequate to help communities realize resilience. The thesis concludes with proposals to help resilience competitions better serve the places and people for whom they are generating ideas, as well as broader recommendations for future exercises in policy innovation for resilience planning.