Garrison Architects

A digital rendering of Garrison Architects' beach comfort station. These modular structures are being installed on New York City beaches that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

By Denise Chow LiveScience

After Hurricane Sandy ravaged New York City's coastlines, city officials knew that any effort to rebuild the damaged beaches had to make sustainability a top priority. Rather than simply replacing what was destroyed, they had to make sure new structures on the shores were built to withstand the next Sandy-like storm.

Enter Jim Garrison. In December, his Brooklyn-based firm, Garrison Architects, was contacted by the New York City Department of Design and Construction to build a collection of lifeguard and comfort stations for beaches in Staten Island, the Rockaways in Queens and Coney Island in Brooklyn. The new permanent structures are intended to replace those that were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.

Garrison Architects was awarded a $106 million contract to build at least 35 buildings on an ambitious deadline: 19 of the structures were expected to be openMemorial Day weekend. [On the Ground: Hurricane Sandy in Images]

"There's still a lot to do, but it's great to finally see them in place," Garrison said. "I'm very critical of our work all the time I judge us according to the highest standards, but I think these are very good."

With only five months to construct the beach stations, Garrison and his colleagues came up with a design for so-called modular buildings, which are structures that are put together from prefabricated sections, or modules.

"We've been working on this process for quite a while," Garrison told LiveScience. "We wanted it to be highly industrialized, something capable of being built in a factory with all its components. It had to be a system that was prototypical and repeatable."

The steel-framed modular stations will sit on a series of pilings, elevating them above current storm-surge levels put forth by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and making them flood resistant. But Garrison also wanted the facilities to be energy efficient, equipped with solar panels to help generate electricity and hot water heating, skylights to capture natural sunlight and ventilation that takes advantage of wind coming off the water.

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After Sandy: NYC beaches a model for rebuilding