S+A is the lead consultant of an international team that developed Resiliency and Adaptation Guidelines for the historic districts of Miami Beach, for the client the City of Miami Beach. 

Over the next 60 years, most buildings in the historic districts that largely comprise Miami Beach will need to be substantially rehabilitated or reconstructed to provide resiliency to rising waters. How shall this be accomplished, and what type of city will result? Will these areas survive as historic districts? Shulman’s study argues that Miami Beach’s vibrant historic districts should be preserved, must evolve to survive, and that preservation can be redeployed as a powerful adaptive tool; the City of Miami Beach must reconsider its preservation standards, and create mechanisms that will allow adaptive development. It should incentivize adaptive development, by allowing new layers of urban fabric to grow from within.