Port St. Joe Exhibit

From Forgotten Coast to Resilient Model

The Florida Resilient Cities (FRC), a program held at the Florida Institute for the Built Environment Resilience (FIBER) at University of Florida started a research initiative in Port St. Joe in Summer 2019 in close collaboration with local communities and stakeholders. The objectives of the Port St. Joe initiative were to support the city in finding balance between placekeeping (preserving the culture and social life of place) and placemaking (developing and changing the shape and social fabric of place) as necessary to face climate change challenges imposed on the human experience through disasters, sea level rise, exacerbation of racial divisions and economic distress. This endeavor is still in progress with the organization of workshops on urban connection, ecosystem services, and affordable housing.

In October 2021, the researchers will organize an exhibition, “Port St. Joe from Forgotten Coast to Resilient Model,” in collaboration with The Joe Center for the Arts. The exhibition will engage the community of Port St. Joe in a dialogue about the interconnectedness of climate change, social inequity, and economic distress. The exhibition will illustrate these connections, driving positive change in the local perception of existing challenges and consequently promoting a dialogue about the future resilient environmental design of their town. To facilitate the connection between people and place, the exhibition extends outside the gallery with installations at strategic landmarks of North Port St. Joe to drive the residents in an experiential learning of places.

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