Envision Resilience: Designs for Living in a Changing Climate—A Multi-Month Exhibition of Innovative Student Designs—Opens at the South Portland Public Library
Designs from the Cornell University team explore regions from Back Cove to Peak’s Island to South Portland.
March 21 Opening Reception Kicks off Six-Week Exhibition
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — The Envision Resilience: Designs for Living in a Changing Climate exhibition will open at the South Portland Public Library on March 21 with a free community open house at 5 p.m. that will celebrate featured student designs for how this coastal community can thrive in a changing climate.
Curated by local artist Brian Smith, the free five-week exhibition will feature a catalog of innovative architectural and landscape designs by student teams in the 2024 Envision Resilience Challenge that emphasize nature-based solutions to sea level rise in Portland and South Portland. Innovative designs included living shorelines and green stormwater infrastructure, and the students addressed challenges like housing through materiality and circular economies and reimagined infrastructure and transportation systems in a low-carbon future.
Envision Resilience works to advance innovative city planning and design in the face of climate change through student and community partnerships. By connecting current and future professionals working across disciplines, the organization creates opportunities for communities to reimagine climate challenges and inspire resilient solutions. Envision Resilience, originally developed by Remain, is part of the philanthropic organizations and initiatives created and funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to work toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.
“Following a successful inaugural exhibition at the Portland Public Library, we are thrilled to bring the remarkable student design work to the South Portland community,” said Claire Martin, executive director of Envision Resilience. “The design outcomes featuring adaptive and resilient future visions for the two cities—tightly connected through their shared harbor and joint climate action plan, One Climate Future—are intended to serve as a catalog of research, tools, concepts and designs. The hope is that, while not being prescriptive or exhaustive, the student visions can further existing projects and spark new ideas in the face of increased storms, flooding and other climate stressors.”
With eight participating universities, the 2024 Envision Resilience Portland and South Portland Challenge brought together graduate and undergraduate students in urban planning, architecture, environmental justice and landscape architecture to connect with community stakeholders for an iterative process of researching, developing and proposing adaptive design ideas for vulnerable sites throughout the cities. Participating institutions were Cornell University, Harvard University, the University at Buffalo, the University of Maine at Augusta, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, Yale University and the program’s first international partner, the University of Toronto. Over five months last fall, students immersed themselves in the culture, values and history of South Portland, Portland and the Casco Bay Island communities, conceptualizing innovative strategies that addressed challenges such as affordable housing, sea level rise, transportation, urban heat, equity, local industry and ecology.
The exhibition aims to inspire the public to envision neighborhoods, working waterfronts, parks, housing and infrastructure through a lens of hope and resilience. Punctuating the designs throughout the exhibition is a compelling collection of artwork by Pame Chévez Zendejas, whose work examines the natural world through a vivid chromatic lens.
"What excites me most about these designs is their potential to enrich Portland and South Portland beyond their role as climate adaptations,” said Brian Smith, local artist and exhibition curator. “Even in a world untouched by ecological urgency, these interventions would be compelling additions to the built environment—thoughtful, innovative and deeply attuned to community well-being. The students’ work not only addresses the challenges of a changing planet but does so in a way that is both visionary and inspiring."
Smith’s curation explores how art and design intersect to enhance conversations around climate resilience. A graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the Maine College of Art & Design, Smith’s work has been exhibited widely across New England and internationally, with recent showings in Antwerp, Austin, Brooklyn and the Portland Museum of Art.
The South Portland Public Library exhibition marks the second in a series of displays throughout Portland and South Portland that showcase the students’ design proposals from the fall 2024 semester, following a similar opening at the Portland Public Library last month.
The featured artist, Pame Chévez Zendejas, is a Costa Rican-American visual artist, animation writer and director whose work incorporates naturalist elements to explore the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and communities. Her contributions to the exhibition offer a striking visual reflection on resilience and adaptation. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Pame is well-versed in traditional art forms, including oil painting, stop-motion animation and hand-drawn animation.
Since its inception, Envision Resilience has engaged 30 student teams from 19 universities, involving 458 students and 86 community advisors across 10 coastal communities, including Nantucket, MA (2021); Narragansett Bay, RI (2022); and New Bedford and Fairhaven, MA (2023).
The Envision Resilience: Designs for Living in a Changing Climate exhibition will run through May 5, at the South Portland Public Library, located at 482 Broadway, South Portland. Admission is free and the exhibition is open during library hours.
Envision Resilience works to advance innovative city planning and design in the face of climate change through student and community partnerships. By connecting current and future professionals working across disciplines, the organization creates opportunities for communities to reimagine climate challenges and inspire resilient solutions. Envision Resilience, originally developed by Remain, is part of the philanthropic organizations and initiatives created and funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to work toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2025
CONTACT:
Claire McElwain
Communications Manager
Remain
(317) 989-8140
