Originated in the historic city of Newport, RI, Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) owns and maintains nearly eighty 18th and early 19th-century houses, which likely constitute the largest collection of Colonial-era houses owned by a single organization in the U.S. Most of NRF’s properties are clustered in Easton's Point (“The Point”) and Historic Hill neighborhoods, and are rented as private residences to tenant stewards.
Through its “Keeping History Above Water®” (KHAW) conference initiative, the Newport Restoration Foundation has become a leading non-governmental organization in the promotion of heritage resilience under sea level rise and flooding risks. Founded in Newport in 2016, the Keeping History Above Water conference series was subsequently held in Annapolis, MD (2017), Palo Alto, CA (2018), Des Moines, IA (2018), St. Augustine, FL (2019), Nantucket, MA (2019), Charleston, SC (2021), Salem, MA (2021), and Norfolk, VA (2022), and has expanded into an interdisciplinary dialogue engaging preservationists, engineers, city planners, legislators, insurers, historic homeowners and other stakeholders. The first international conference was held in March 2023, in Trinidad and Tobago.
Besides organizing KHAW conferences, in recent years, NRF also conducted an adaptation design study on its historic 74 Bridge Street house, held a design studio in conjunction with RISD to envision resilient design options for the Point neighborhood, completed a comprehensive vulnerability assessment of its 80 properties, and partnered with the City in the development of graphics to accompany Newport’s Policy Statement and Design Guidelines for Elevating Historic Buildings. Their work was featured in a New York Times article in 2019.
This interview was carried out on Nov. 22, 2022 over Zoom, with Ms. Alyssa Lozupone, Director of Preservation at NRF, and Ms. Margaret Back, Preservation Associate at NRF.
“We’re seeing a debate on whether or not to elevate historic houses up to meet the Basic Flood Elevation (BFE); in other words, whether to prioritize historic character, or to prioritize flood resilience."
The Inaugural Keeping History Above Water Conference, Newport, 2016. Source: Newport Restoration Foundation.
Ziming Wang: It’s hard not to notice the pioneering and influential work that you’ve done in the past several years — from the KHAW conference series to experimental research and retrofitting projects on the Point’s historic properties. What made you become such a leading advocator in climate resilience and historic preservation? How is climate resilience positioned in NRF’s mission and daily operation?
Alyssa Lozupone & Margaret Back: Well, there are a number of impetuses behind our focus on sea level rise and climate resilience — first of all, we are one of the largest owners of historic single-family homes in Newport, if not of single-family homes in general; since many of our properties are located in the Point neighborhood which sits only a few feet above sea level, developing strategies and solutions towards sea level rise and flooding is vital to the management of our real estate. Furthermore, climate change and resilience is also an important part of NRF’s missions, as we advocate for the preservation of Newport’s historic urban environment, and seek to develop resources needed by the community.
Ziming Wang: What impacts did recent hurricanes cause to the Point? What unique challenges are faced by these 18th and 19th-century wooden houses?
Alyssa Lozupone & Margaret Back: We were definitely hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy — there are many pictures online showing Sandy's impact (for example, see here for a set of photographs on Hurricane Sandy in Newport). But we are not only facing major hurricanes; there are also heavy rains, high tides and king tides. Flood resulting from these events has become more and more frequent in recent years.
And yes, wood post-and-beam construction is one of the major character-defining features of the Point, and we try to encourage adaptation approaches developed by architects and designers to follow the City's guidelines and preserve historic construction techniques while sustaining the neighborhood’s character and scale.
Ziming Wang: Speaking of your experience in organizing the Keeping History Above Water conferences, how do different cities across the country respond to the discourse on heritage resilience? Is every waterfront city eager to join this conversation, or is it only receiving more attention in some places?
Alyssa Lozupone & Margaret Back: The KHAW conferences are designed to engage like-minded professionals from diverse fields, so it’s generally very well received in host cities; however, we have seen that each community has a unique dynamic between stakeholders. For example, in Nantucket, MA, we saw a ramped-up synergy between NGOs, local government, and the community; in Norfolk, VA, the dialogue was more community-driven; in Newport, we were doing a lot of coordination work to bring different actors together for a discussion on sea level rise, flood adaptation, and heritage resilience. And, it has been our intention to bring the conference to vulnerable communities across the country — many of them have been repeatedly impacted by extreme storm events.
Ziming Wang: Besides the KHAW conference series, have you conducted other public-oriented programs to communicate your research and vision for heritage resilience? What can other NGOs learn from your public engagement efforts?
Alyssa Lozupone & Margaret Back: A project we’re now working on with the city is to produce illustrations for the city’s recently-published Policy Statement and Design Guidelines for Elevating Historic Buildings. We hope that a visualized version of the guidelines will be more comprehensible to the public, serving beyond a policy document aimed only at preservationists and design professionals.
Another attempt made in 2021 was to co-create a performing art piece titled In the Waves — where local residents were invited to collaborate in performances and create movements that represent rising sea levels and a rapidly changing climate. In this experimental project, we engaged the public through more creative and participatory measures that helped strengthen an understanding of the effects of climate change.
Ziming Wang: What interested me most in NRF’s 74 Bridge Street report is that it identifies the physical elevation of streets together with all houses as a potential solution that both achieves regulatory compliance and retains historic characters. What do you think are the prospects of this solution? And how do you imagine Newport’s future historic streetscapes?
Alyssa Lozupone & Margaret Back: Raising both streets and houses may seem like an ideal solution, but we’ve come to understand that it’s really not something we can realize as a non-governmental organization. So, we’ve shifted our focus to educating local homeowners by existing examples of building elevation and flood retrofitting. Apart from the street-raising solution, we’re still seeing a debate on whether or not to elevate historic houses up to meet the Basic Flood Elevation (BFE); in other words, whether to prioritize historic character, or to prioritize flood resilience.
Speaking of streetscapes and urban environments, we believe that there’s another important element worth paying attention to — landscape design. The selection of driveway materials and the design of landscape features may have a significant impact on the flood resilience of historic neighborhoods, and they influence the aesthetics as well; however, the local Historic District Commission (HDC) has no current purview over features outside historic houses, so we’re looking forward to new mechanisms that may potentially incorporate these site considerations.
Ziming Wang: From your perspective, what’s the biggest challenge in adapting Newport’s historic built environment towards flood resilience? What are your next steps in promoting heritage resilience and flood adaptation?
Alyssa Lozupone & Margaret Back: The biggest issue in our eyes is that there hasn’t been much financial incentive for the elevation or flood adaptation of historic houses. Those who have retrofitted their houses are those lucky to have the means — and they have to finance these projects on their own. In fact, almost all elevated houses in Newport are privately funded by homeowners.
So one of our next steps would be to take a further look into the cost and financial issues associated with building retrofitting, and to explore ways that serve to make building retrofitting more accessible to everyone in the neighborhood.
On top of that, we’ll continue to organize our KHAW conferences — potential future focus areas that we can think of right now include fundraising flood adaptation, solutions for physical adaptation, and neighborhood-scaled strategies.
* This interview text has been transcribed and edited based on the interviewer’s notes.
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