Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge
By: Benjamin Jones
Tags: Bay Area, Resilience, Social Enterprise, Climate Change, Nonprofit

About Resilient By Design

The Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge (RBD) was a yearlong collaborative effort bringing together local residents, public officials, and local, national, and international experts to develop community-based initiatives that would strengthen the San Francisco Bay Area’s resilience to sea-level rise, severe storms, flooding, and earthquakes.

Following a year of fundraising and program development, the Challenge launched in May 2017, with open calls to design teams for participation and to the public for identifying sites around the bay that are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise and could benefit from collaborative, multidisciplinary solutions.

In September 2017, an international jury selected the 10 design teams (collectively representing over 90 organizations) that would work on 10 chosen sites. During the first five months, the teams did deep research into site-specific challenges; this was followed by five months of co-creating solutions with local communities.

In May 2018, the teams presented solutions at a daylong event. Since then, many projects have received prestigious awards, and they continue to play a key role in helping the Bay Area become more resilient and adaptable to the impacts of climate change.

The launch: create instant capacity for multi-sector collaboration

RBD was initiated by the City and County of San Francisco in partnership with regional agencies. Based on Rebuild by Design, a project that helped East Coast communities rebuild after Hurricane Sandy, RBD was created to develop community-based solutions for strengthening the region’s resilience against climate change’s most severe impacts, and to prevent or reduce devastation from sea-level rise and more frequent natural disasters.

Photo by Jonathan Nabais on Unsplash

To succeed, RBD needed ramp up quickly, secure funding, build a cohesive leadership structure and team, convene diverse stakeholders, and foster the support of regional agencies and community leaders in all nine Bay Area counties. RBD needed a host and partner that could help make all that happen, plus expedite access to government grants and philanthropic funding.

The project was a perfect match for nonprofit accelerator Multiplier. “Although it was a pop-up, time-limited project, RBD had great impact potential. And this was a terrific opportunity to make a difference right in our own backyard of Oakland,” says Laura Deaton, Multiplier’s executive director. “Most important, the Challenge model provided a blueprint for solutions that can also be replicated in other coastal communities.”

The strategy: free the team to focus on community engagement

Together with providing an administrative and operational backbone, Multiplier helped structure the volunteer executive board, recruited and onboarded the program team, and worked closely with project leadership to secure more than $5.2 million in major funding, with leading support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

“We were a small, very fast-moving team with large, complex goals,” recalls Amanda Brown-Stevens, RBD managing director. “We had to define the Challenge as we were building it. Multiplier made sure we hit the ground running.”

Many of the design firms were not local, so building a Challenge process that would be sensitive to on-the-ground issues was key. “With a time-limited project involving engagement with vulnerable communities, the team had to carefully navigate issues around equity and impact,” Deaton says.

Rebuild BIG Team public workshop

“Multiplier was a real partner and advisor to us,” says Brown-Stevens. “We had lots of challenges around community engagement, and it was a high-profile, politically charged project. One key element was that they cared passionately about our success, and they served as a non-emotional sounding board and neutral party when things weren’t going smoothly.”

The accelerator also had a “Switzerland role” in negotiating $250,000 contracts with the 10 winning design teams, each with their own ideas about ownership of the design solutions, insurance, indemnity, deliverables, and payments. With Multiplier taking the lead, negotiations didn’t color relationships between RBD staff members and design teams, and the project maintained forward momentum.

Multiplier helped prevent future headaches by negotiating contracts with design teams that ensured communities could implement solutions without paying additional rights fees or being restricted to using the design firm. “They were very forward thinking,” says Brown-Stevens.

Throughout, Multiplier freed staff to focus on community-engaged program design and delivery without worrying about operations. For example, the 10 selected design teams required 5 to 10 community outreach events apiece; Multiplier handled vendor contracts, payments, and a host of supporting tasks, like printing materials, wrangling caterers, and obtaining insurance — sometimes with very little advance notice.

RBD project leaders say Multiplier’s operational support went above and beyond, citing its budget development and reporting, legal support, and streamlining of operations.

“We knew they’d be monitoring our budget and handling operations, but we didn’t expect ongoing senior counsel,” says Zoe Siegel, RBD program manager. “Multiplier’s wealth of knowledge and hands-on coaching was a big bonus.”

The win: regional blueprints for resilience

In just over a year, RBD executed an international design challenge that winnowed more than 100 applicants to 10 finalist teams; worked with the chosen teams to research sites around San Francisco Bay; facilitated collaborations among the design teams, communities, and outside experts to develop solutions; and held a daylong event showcasing the nine final projects that give Bay Area communities blueprints for developing and restoring shorelines and mitigating sea-level rise. Among the results:

The Grand Bayway recreates the North Bay’s Route 37 as an elevated scenic byway and iconic “front door” to a vast ecological open space and recreation area for growing North Bay communities. (Design team: Common Ground)

recreates the North Bay’s Route 37 as an elevated scenic byway and iconic “front door” to a vast ecological open space and recreation area for growing North Bay communities. (Design team: Common Ground) Our-Home provides lower-cost home ownership, jobs, and green infrastructure that restores wetlands and “brings the marsh to Main Street” in North Richmond. (Design team: Home Team)

provides lower-cost home ownership, jobs, and green infrastructure that restores wetlands and “brings the marsh to Main Street” in North Richmond. (Design team: Home Team) Estuary Commons in Alameda County creates a network of green public spaces in Deep East Oakland, Alameda, and San Leandro, mitigating sea-level rise and groundwater flooding. (Design team: ABC)

in Alameda County creates a network of green public spaces in Deep East Oakland, Alameda, and San Leandro, mitigating sea-level rise and groundwater flooding. (Design team: ABC) Islais Hyper-Creek restores the underlying watershed in southeastern San Francisco and creates a major new park, mitigating flooding and allowing nature and industry to coexist. (Design team: BIG+ONE+Sherwood)

restores the underlying watershed in southeastern San Francisco and creates a major new park, mitigating flooding and allowing nature and industry to coexist. (Design team: BIG+ONE+Sherwood) Unlock Alameda Creek links the South Bay creek with its historic bay lands, provides a sustainable supply of sediment to marshes and mudflats for sea-level rise adaptation, reconnects fish with their spawning grounds, and creates a network of community spaces. (Design team: Public Sediment)

Following the end of the Challenge, Multiplier and a streamlined RBD team continued to work on securing additional funding to implement some projects. Many have received awards, and several are now being implemented, including Unlock Alameda Creek, which received $31.4 million from the state of California. A youth engagement program continues under the aegis of Y-PLAN at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The Multiplier team was just as committed to the success of these projects as we were,” says Siegel. “They went well beyond fiscal sponsorship — having accelerator support helped us amplify the work we were doing.”

Brown-Stevens goes further: “We can’t imagine how we could have done this project without them.”

Multiplier Acceleration