SAT-B01: Build Me a River: Leading Urban Revitalization with Flood-Resilient Park Design

Saturday, October 11, 2025

2:00 PM – 3:15 PM CT

1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW

Speaker(s)

Herb Sweeney, IV, ASLA

Principal
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Pina Mallozzi (she/her/hers)

Senior Vice President, Design
Waterfront Toronto
Etobicoke, Ontario
Jonathon Kusa, LEED AP, PE (he/him/his)

President & CEO
Inter-Fluve, Inc.
St. Paul, Minnesota

Reimagining Toronto’s industrial Port Lands was key to solving flooding on 500 acres of the city where the Don River meets Lake Ontario. This session examines flood-resilient design worldwide and the journey of leading the re-naturalization of a river with a technically sound, ecologically beneficial, and innovative landscape-driven approach.

Learning Outcomes:

Gain insights into how landscape-driven design leadership can cohesively integrate the necessarily diverse range of design professionals to propel large-scale waterfront resilience projects from concept through construction.
Illustrate different technological approaches used to develop site-specific solutions for riverfront resilience, including flood mapping, slope stabilization, storm surge
Learn how constructed ecologies catalyze sustainable ecological functioning, increase river and wetland durability, and expand nature-based human experiences in the city.
Understand how iterative collaborations between engineering and landscape professions can expand possibilities for creative, practical, and performative solutions.