Brizaga worked closely with Vizcaya Museum and Gardens to perform a coastal engineering analysis and to develop flood protection measures to protect the main house and gardens. The project identified 4 priority areas for protection as a response to Hurricane Irma in 2017, where a significant storm surge completely flooded the main gardens and gift shop with 3-5ft of saltwater and debris. We needed to find a solution in symphony with the garden without disrupting the landscape and historical site. On May 27th, 2021, Vizcaya deployed the first Tiger Dam System in South Florida with our partner U.S Flood Control around four priority areas. The Tiger Dam system works as water-filled barriers that can be deployed and anchored to the ground to mitigate flooding. Brizaga designed the system for the worst-case category one hurricane, with barriers that can be stacked on top of one another. The anchors at each location were designed based on the ground the barriers were placed on, and consisted of either helical anchors or post-installed concrete anchors.
View the news coverage from Local 10 News on the project here.
