Responding to disaster: how architects can help communities rebuild

As architects, planners, and designers, we’re often asked questions about creating new spaces and buildings or preserving hundred-year-old buildings. It’s less often that our role in rebuilding after disasters is discussed in classrooms and newspapers. However, this is a critical role we can play to help families and businesses recover after their lives and livelihoods are upended.

On this episode of our podcast Treanor Talks, we catch up with Pendleton’s County Market owners Karen and John Pendleton to discuss their experience recovering from an EF-4 tornado that ripped through their farm in Lawrence, Kansas, in May of 2019.

Joy Coleman, principal and architect at Treanor, assisted the Pendletons with assessment and renovations after the tornado and joins this episode to talk more about the project.

“Everything I do is on older and historic buildings,” says Joy. “And sometimes, as happened with the Pendleton’s house and the other structures, they get kind of damaged and twisted about, if not blown over.”

Architects have the opportunity to serve as emergency second responders by certifying as disaster assessment professionals through the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), which is the national standard for certifying architects, engineers, and code and safety professionals to provide assessment reports. Will Robarge, a former associate principal and architect at Treanor, was one of just a few certified trainers through Cal OES.

Listen to the full episode to learn more about the Pendleton’s inspiring story navigating the assessment and renovation process after the tornado, as well as how trained disaster assessment professionals can help respond and assist.

Resources:

• How to make a disaster preparedness plan for your and your family
• FEMA
• Red Cross
• Cal OES
• AIA Disaster Assistance Program
• AIA Reoccupancy Assessment Tool
• AIA Disaster Assistance Handbook