FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – As it undergoes an expansion project, Local 10 News got an inside look Tuesday at how updates to the Broward County Convention Center are positioned to make the building more climate-resilient and better able to withstand extreme weather.
The behind-the-scenes tour comes as governments across South Florida look to apply lessons learned from historic floods that blanketed eastern Broward County.
Facilities Director Rick Fredette showcased some of the critical systems that have been put in place — 60 feet above ground level.
“These are the most important building systems,” Fredette, pointing to the building’s main operating systems, said.
Those systems include generators, to chillers, to substation switch gear, all protected in order to keep the building running in case of a storm.
“When they designed this, they did it right,” Fredette said.
The proactive measures paid off during the historic rainfall. While some flooding occurred on the first floor, it didn’t impact operations.
“If all that infrastructure was on the first floor, we would have been in a world of hurt because we would have lost electricity, telecommunications, all that important stuff that we have to rely on day to day,” General Manager Charlie Beirne said.
In fact, Beirne said the convention center hosted two events the very next day.
April’s historic flooding has been a community-wide lesson on the need for climate-resilient buildings and infrastructure.
Fort Lauderdale’s 1960s-era city hall, for instance, was rendered inoperable after flood waters inundated its basement, forcing officials to find a new home for city government.
And flooded private fuel pumps at Port Everglades created distribution delays, leading to plans to require that new pumps be elevated.
Officials’ big takeaway? They need to learn to live with water.
“It is changing, it is evolving, our climate, so we have to go up, and if we don’t go up, shame on us, because we have to be prepared,” Beirne said.