DNAinfo: 12 Innovative Post-Sandy Projects Built to Withstand Future Storms
Amy Zimmer
02 October 2017

The Whitney Museum of American Art has been featured in DNAinfo:

“Construction of the Whitney was already underway when Sandy hit.

But the 2012 storm brought more than 6 million gallons of river water into the building’s 30-inch deep basement, forcing architects from Renzo Piano Building Workshop, working with Cooper Robertson, to pay even greater attention to address resilience and protect the museum’s collections from future storms.

Already, galleries and art storage were planned for the fifth floor and higher. But then the building’s planners enlisted manufacturers of watertight doors for navy vessels to build 10-inch thick floodgates to prevent water from entering the building’s doors to allow staff to respond quickly to periodic flooding, and waterproof membranes are behind the reinforced concrete floors to makes sure the rest of the building is sealed, according to a white paper from Cooper Robertson.

If an event like Sandy is in the forecast, a temporary flood barrier can be deployed from a nearby warehouse and assembled on-site to protect the building’s ground floor and basement.

Also, instead of a 1,000-gallon fuel oil tank originally planned, the museum has 4,000-gallon tank to keep the building’s systems running.”

Read more at DNAinfo.