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The Future of the Public Realm

WED-A11: Great Lakes Resilience: Advancing a Novel Regional Prototype from Concept to Construction

Wednesday, September 16, 2026
8:30 AM - 9:45 AM PT
1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW

Landscape architects are redefining regional infrastructure. This session highlights the client and consultant teams collaborating to advance the Cleveland Harbor Eastern Embayment Resilience Strategy (CHEERS), a $500-million, 40-year initiative. Speakers will unpack the practical realities behind implementation—funding, partnerships, complex regulatory coordination, and community trust—transforming a vision into lasting lakefront infrastructure.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Describe how landscape architects can help communities move innovative shoreline resilience solutions from master planning to implementation through strategic refinement, regulatory navigation, and sustained multi-agency and community collaboration.
  • Demonstrate the (unexpected) roles landscape architects play in leading public realm improvements, and how communicating the benefits of ecological restoration and biodiversity strengthens public health, regulatory frameworks, and funding outcomes.
  • Navigate regulatory approvals for a 100+ acre waterfront project using dredged material, and how long-term stewardship and relationship building support environmental justice and resilience.
  • Identify work products (Benefit Cost Analysis, technical fact sheets, workforce development plans, and graphic communications, etc.) that best demonstrate project value, support grant applications, and enable advancement through permitting processes.