Grantee Profile
MoMA's "Rising Currents"
"Climate change is not simply a problem to be confronted, but an opportunity to be seized," says Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Making cities more livable today could help them bounce back from the dangerous consequences of climate change in the future, he explains. It is this vision that is brought vividly to life in "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront," an exhibition at MoMA that runs through October 11, 2010.
Here you'll see the New York City area as you've never seen it before: with Venice-style canals, habitable piers and human-made islands, a protective reef of thriving oysters, salt- and freshwater wetlands along the shores. These innovative approaches, Bergdoll says, could enable the city and its surroundings to become more resistant to the rising sea levels and increasingly frequent storm surges experts believe are wrought by climate change.
Working in five multi-disciplinary teams, a group of forward-thinking architects, engineers and landscape designers developed these ideas, emphasizing sustainable, adaptive infrastructure solutions. These emerging leaders then turned their imagination into the enthralling physical and digital models and drawings now on display.
This exhibition, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, is the culmination of a major initiative organized by MoMA and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center.
"Not only has 'Rising Currents' created a set of visions for a different kind of harbor city, but it also is illustrative of a new role for P.S.1 and MoMA in stimulating and harnessing debate about vital issues of public concern in architecture and urban planning," Bergdoll notes. The exhibition draws on the scientific results of the work of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, another project supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.
"As the city charts its future in coming decades," Bergdoll adds, "the proposed projects featured in 'Rising Currents' represent realistic possibilities whose impact and influence could be felt even now. And the projects are truly 'glocal'—conceived for local conditions, but with global implications."
Certainly, lessons learned can be shared near and far—with the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network, for instance, designed to help ten cities in Asia develop robust plans to prepare for, withstand and recover from the predicted impacts of climate change; and with the Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative, a program launched by the Center for Clean Air Policy to find better ways to help local governments in ten cities in the United States and Canada improve their communities' climate change resilience. Both of these projects are also supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Whether or not you visit MoMA's "Rising Currents" exhibition, you can take part in an exciting dialogue about shaping the future of New York City: Just join the online conversation among curators, designers and other experts, through the museum's accompanying website.