A New Urbanist Vision For New Orleans

"Though it is unusually vulnerable to natural disaster, nearly all of its neighborhoods have managed to avoid the urban renewal and crass commercial projects that have taken their toll elsewhere. This is partly due to the intractable poverty here, which has made great sections of New Orleans unattractive to national developers, and partly to a long-standing preservation movement.

...And if there is one task that American planners, developers and architects have struggled with over the last few decades, it is the attempt to create, from scratch, buildings that connect directly with urban history without seeming trite or saccharine. Once the dead are buried and the city recovers â€" and, let's not forget, deals with what will probably rank as the biggest toxic cleanup in American history â€" that is precisely the task New Orleans will face.

...In the best possible architectural outcome, that section will be awash two or three years from now not in water but in funding for housing that is affordable, humane, smartly designed and sustainable, perhaps with connections to transit and shopping built in from the start. It could even help spur an affordable-housing revival, giving new energy to a field that desperately needs it."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism Listserv