Tall & Urban News

New York’s housing shortage could swell to 1.2 million homes as flood-prone land becomes increasingly unbuildable, according to a new report by the Regional Plan Association. Over half of the 82,000 homes at risk are located on Long Island, including towns like Babylon and Islip, with additional vulnerability found in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and cities along the Long Island Sound.

As climate threats escalate, experts argue that the traditional model of single-family suburban homes is no longer viable. “We need to rethink what a conventional home looks like,” said Max Besbris, a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist. Denser, energy-efficient housing may be essential to meet demand in safer areas.

In 2023, CTBUH completed a study on sea-level rise and the potential impact on shorelines across the globe and analyzed 23,156 of the buildings in its database that were completed, under construction, and proposed buildings and within 100 kilometers of a coastline.

This analysis builds off the work conducted by the Université de Montréal, supported by the 2019 CTBUH Student Research Competition, kindly sponsored by Taipei Financial Center Corporation. The first phase of the research was conducted by Mandana Bafghinia, PhD candidate, with the assistance of Conor DeSantis, Masters in Urban Studies student.

To generalize the threat to tall buildings globally, CTBUH focused on the world's stock of 200-meter-plus buildings as of 1 January 2022, when the study was initiated. Seventy percent of the 2,005 buildings of 200 meters or greater in height, or 1,399 buildings, are within 100 kilometers of a coast. Like sea level rise, the risk this poses is relative to location, and certain regions’ geographies may be better equipped for climate resiliency.

Within this study, six case study cities are also presented, including New York City.

Explore the CTBUH study.