NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — After more than a year of construction, the Ryan Resilience Lab is complete, thanks to the Elizabeth River Project.
The $8-million, privately-funded building design from Work Program Architects will help promote effective ways for coastal residents to protect themselves amidst sea level rise.
“Every part of the building is designed to really tell the same story of resilience [and] sustainability,” said Sam Bowling, Work Program Architects associate principal. “The community can come here and actually take something away from it and recreate some of these same strategies and techniques elsewhere in their own homes or businesses.”
Ryan Resilience was strategically built near Knitting Mill Creek at 4610 Colley Ave. in Norfolk, where the tides are rising the fastest on the east coast.
“So, there was an old marina here and we took it out and put a living shoreline with native plants and native wetlands and oyster reef,” said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, Elizabeth River Project executive director, “and that will slow erosion and bring back wildlife and make a habitat for wildlife.”
Boasting 6,500-square-feet, the lab will feature eco-friendly green roofs, pollution controls and massive cisterns.
“And on top of that, we have solar panels on the roof,” Bowling said. “We have passive day lighting systems, we have passive shading, so the whole thing is really designed to be this very, very efficient box that brings the sun in in a way that doesn’t heat the building up too much, keeps the warm in the winter, and it makes stone power onsite the same way.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration experts predicts tidal flooding will become at least seven times more frequent in Norfolk by 2050.
Ryan Resilience Lab will open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.