August 2025
Designing for Rising Tides: Exploring Strategies for Making Easton’s Beach More Resilient
DBVW Architects and the City of Newport are working closely to evaluate existing land forms and buildings at Easton’s Beach to determine how this public amenity can be made more resilient.
Building upon extensive research and engaging with stakeholders over a three-day period in June, the design team developed several options for improvements to the beach and buildings that address the climate challenges the site has faced throughout its history.
The design team, which includes DBVW, Fuss & O'Neill, and the Woods Hole Group, facilitated several interactive public workshops. These sessions, which were held at multiple locations throughout the city, included an informational kick-off presentation, a beach "walk-shop", several community visioning sessions, and design open houses. This multi-day exercise enabled the team and the client to hear the suggestions and concerns from stakeholders, and to implement them in real-time for community feedback at subsequent workshops.
Using input from the community, DBVW and the design team developed different conceptual design options, with different budgets and different approaches to resiliency. The next step will be to test the design concepts utilizing modeling software to better understand how waves, currents, and storms might impact the designs over time. The resiliency study will conclude at the end of 2025 when presentations of the team's finding are made to the City of Newport.
Many different design options were explored, including the construction of a new beach pavilion (left) and the conversion of the Rotunda to an open-air playground (right).
