Fellows in Urban Leadership Explore Climate Resilience in New York City

On Friday, October 24, the University of Pennsylvania’s 2025-2026 cohort of Fellows in Urban Leadership traveled to New York City for a full-day immersion into the layered, interdisciplinary work of building urban climate resilience. With stops that spanned planning, design, finance, and public engagement, the trip reflected the Fellows’ shared interest in how cities adapt to environmental risk while creating equitable, livable communities.

Organized by Amanda Lloyd of Penn IUR and framed around the theme Building Resilience, the itinerary featured expert-led sessions with planners, architects, and financiers behind one of the most ambitious public infrastructure undertakings in recent memory: New York’s $1.5 billion Lower Manhattan Coastal Resilience project.

Regional Planning at Human Scale

The day began at the Regional Plan Association (RPA), where Fellows met with staff engaged in shaping community-centered responses to climate risk across the tri-state area. In a wide-ranging discussion, the RPA team emphasized that resilience planning extends far beyond physical infrastructure to address structural injustices and ensure that protective investments serve the most vulnerable. In discussing flood maps and housing displacement, Fellows explored how climate adaptation intersects with longstanding questions of equity, mobility, and access.

“The trip made clearly evident the importance and effectiveness of designing areas that are beneficial in different ways to different users,” said Jeremy Morton. “We saw how new infrastructure, when thoughtfully planned, can simultaneously serve environmental, recreational, and transit goals.”

Designing for a Wetter Future

From Midtown, the group traveled downtown to meet Laura Frances, a Penn IUR and Master of City Planning alum and Managing Director at ONE Architecture & Urbanism, for a walking tour of the newly opened flood-resilient parks along the East River. Frances, who played a key design role in the Rebuild by Design initiative, guided the Fellows through Corlears Hook Park and the newly constructed berms, floodgates, and ferry terminals that form the backbone of the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) system. These interventions are engineered to protect tens of thousands of residents from storm surge while also creating welcoming green space for everyday use.

For some Fellows, the moment was especially personal.

“A highlight for Angela Ye and me was seeing a project we first studied in our freshman year come to life,” said Skyla Rimple. “In a Penn Global Seminar with Professor [Simon] Richter, we compared climate resilience strategies in the Netherlands and the U.S., and to now walk through a site we analyzed years ago, with the same design firm we studied, was a full circle moment.”

Angela Ye added, “It was fascinating to compare what we saw in New York with the Dutch approach. Even the time frames for project financing and design—100 years here versus 3000 in the Netherlands—reflect such different attitudes toward long-term risk.”

Fellow Veronica Baladi noted that seeing the finished parkland underscored how collaborative resilience planning must be: “My biggest takeaway was how interdisciplinary the process is to make the best city possible, from the residents who ask for basketball courts in the quiet corners of the park, to the public financiers who make the deals happen.”

Financing the Future

After a lunch break with views of the East River, the Fellows headed into the heart of the Financial District for a private conversation with members of the municipal finance team at Goldman Sachs. The group included representatives who had worked directly with city agencies to structure the financing for major resilience investments. They walked the Fellows through the scale and complexity of funding multi-billion-dollar, multidecade projects, discussing public-private partnerships, green bonds, and the political calculus involved in climate infrastructure deals.

“Resilience projects come with large costs,” reflected Morton. “By designing them to serve multiple purposes—transportation, recreation, protection—planners can provide more value for each dollar and attract stronger public and political support.”

A Warm Ending on the Upper West Side

To close out the day, the Fellows traveled uptown to the home of Penn IUR Co-Director Dr. Eugénie Birch for a casual dinner with alumni and invited guests. Fellows exchanged reflections on the day’s conversations and built new connections with peers who share their commitment to building stronger cities.

“This trip gave me a great chance to get to know the other IUR Fellows better and spend time with some people I was already friends with,” said Stefan Hatch. “From an intellectual standpoint, we covered a lot of different aspects of resiliency planning, and I enjoyed the technical conversations with each of our hosts. As a day trip, it was perfect—so much packed in without feeling rushed.”

He added, “Big thanks to Amanda for coordinating such an awesome itinerary, and thank you to RPA, ONE Architecture, Goldman Sachs, and of course, Dr. Birch for hosting us. And thank you to IUR for sponsoring this fellowship!”

As cities around the world confront climate change, Penn IUR seeks to convey the urgency of and possibility for more resilient urban futures. Whether through the lens of planning, partnership, design, or finance, there are many ways urban leaders can shape communities that are safer, more sustainable, and more just.

To learn more about the Fellows in Urban Leadership Program, visit https://penniur.upenn.edu/student-programs. To support the Fellows in Urban Leadership program, visit https://penniur.upenn.edu/support.