Fostering Resilience Through Community Based Innovation

Based on her work experience in post-Katrina New Orleans and post-Sandy New York City, the Municipal Art Society of New York’s Director of Urban Resilience and Livability, Mary Rowe, discusses the role of self-organization and granular innovation in urban resilience-building. Highlighting examples from New Orleans, New York City, and cities around the globe, Ms. Rowe focuses on the need for a collaborative process to build resilience that takes advantage of the systems and features already in place in the urban ecosystem. Mary W Rowe is currently Vice President & Managing Director of the Municipal Art Society of New York City, a century-old advocacy organization working to promote the livability and resilience of New York City through effective urban planning, land use, and design. Mary directs resilience work at MAS, including convening and community engagement to build local resilience-building strategies; MAS’ support of Rebuild by Design, an initiative of President Obama’s Sandy Task Force to stimulate innovative design solutions to make the region more resilient; and the MAS’ global City-Builder Network, a peer-to-peer learning platform connecting urban practitioners contributing to the livability and resilience of cities around the world. Previously she spent five years learning about granular approaches to urban innovation while supporting the New Orleans Institute for Resilience and Innovation, a loose alliance of initiatives that emerged in response to the systemic collapses of 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. She has a particular interest in self-organization in cities, as the underpinning of urban social, economic, cultural and environmental resilience.