OUR PROGRAM
Assisting Communities
FRC seeks to bridge community needs with design research by faculty and students within the College of Design, Construction and Planning, and departments across UF.
Enabling Sustainability
FRC encourages cities to view climate change solutions as opportunities to invest in redevelopment and adaptive transformation.
Helping communities across Florida develop the capacity to be more prepared for and more resilient to increased risk
For many Florida cities, climate change is not leading to sudden catastrophe but to an accumulation of smaller events such as nuisance flooding, housing shortages and water quality issues that cumulatively are creating large impacts. Such chronic concerns place a demand on municipal officials to act effectively in the short term, pushing long-term resilience off for another day. In the face of worsening climate conditions, the pressing needs of today can overshadow future needs, especially for municipalities without sufficient numbers of staff or for non-governmental organizations leading resilience efforts.
FRC provides unparalleled access to a broad range of University of Florida faculty, staff, students, and resources. In addition to the specific research needs that UF faculty can fill, FRC provides project scoping, coordination, project management, access to data, and eventual publication of findings. The program offers a design approach to community-scale adaptation and encourages cities to view climate change solutions as opportunities to invest in redevelopment and adaptive transformation.
PROJECTS
Port St. Joe
The 2019-2021 project focuses on the City of Port St. Joe, its surrounding region’s recovery from Hurricane Michael and their long-term resilience. On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael, the first Category 5 storm to hit the U.S. mainland since 1992, made landfall near Mexico Beach, twelve miles west of Port St. Joe. The storm devastated communities across the Florida Panhandle and into Georgia.
The FRC process began with community workshops that illustrated the values, goals, and needs of the residents of Port St. Joe. The information gleaned from these workshops was passed on to UF faculty in a Request for Proposals, to encourage faculty and student research initiatives that would explore community resilience. These Faculty-Led Research Initiatives were undertaken during the Spring of 2020, exploring built environment, social and cultural resilience.
Cedar Key
Cedar Key is a historic community with a range of housing stock, ages, construction types, and economic values. This housing stock traditionally supported a diverse community across race, age, and economic status. Like many coastal communities in Florida, Cedar Key has seen property values rise substantially in recent years, making housing unaffordable to many people. Coupled with increased risk from rising tides/coastal flooding, structure age, and costs of upkeep, Cedar Key’s housing stock is vulnerable to storm damage as well as conversion to short-term rental properties. Cedar Key’s housing should be affordable, resilient to flooding, and diverse in order to support the diverse members of the community.
Jacksonville
OUR TEAM
Jeffrey Carney
Director, Associate Professor
School of Architecture
Contact: j.carney@ufl.edu
Carla Brisotto
Assistant Director, Assistant Scholar
School of Architecture
Contact: c.brisotto@ufl.edu
Christian Figueroa
Assistant Scholar
School of Architecture
Contact: callefigueroac@ufl.edu
Changjie Chen
Assistant Scientist
School of Architecture
Contact: chj.chen@ufl.edu
Sheyla Santana
Post-Doctoral Associate
School of Architecture
Contact: sheyla.santana@ufl.edu
Forough Foroutan
Ph.D. Candidate
School of Architecture
Contact: forough.foroutan@ufl.edu
Ana Tricarico Orosco
Ph.D. Candidate
School of Design, Construction, and Planning
Contact: ana.orosco@ufl.edu