November 7, 2005

ASLA Continues to Address Hurricane Devastation in the Gulf
The Society and its members are working on several fronts to create positive change in the Gulf region.

ASLA continues to work with its local leadership in Louisiana, Mississippi, and the rest of the Gulf Coast to ensure that the landscape architecture community is responding to the needs of the area in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Society’s chief concern remains ensuring that reconstruction efforts are undertaken with local concerns as the chief motivating factor and that projects have long-term viability and sustainability. With these goals in mind, here is what ASLA has been doing to keep landscape architects involved in the reconstruction process.

Partnerships and Alliances
One of the best things ASLA can do is seek out partnerships and alliances with like-minded groups that are also involved with the Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts. To that end, local leaders in Louisiana have been reaching out to organizations like the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Bring Back New Orleans Committee to discuss ways landscape architects can participate in and lend their expertise to those efforts.

On the national level, ASLA continues to seek out alliances with organizations like the Urban Land Institute (ULI), American Planning Association (APA), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Local ASLA members have been invited to participate in the Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference, which is being cosponsored by the AIA and APA at the request of Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The Conference will focus on a range of planning, design, community development, infrastructure, and economic issues.

In addition, the Regional Plan Association (RPA) is working with major planning, design, and development organizations, including ASLA, to prepare a comprehensive vision for the Gulf Coast region. As a first step in that process, ASLA members are preparing a map of environmentally sensitive areas in the region. The map—or series of maps—will consist of natural hazard areas, ecologically significant areas, natural resource production areas, and culturally important areas. The group has asked Jack Dangermond, ASLA, president of ESRI, and Barbara Faga, FASLA, of EDAW to lead this effort. They indicate that the data necessary to produce such maps exist in a GIS format.

ASLA is also partnering with the National Building Museum to present a series of programs about the Gulf Coast entitled Building in the Aftermath. The first program in the series will concentrate on rebuilding in New Orleans and will feature a panel of leaders in urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, and architecture, including Suzanne Turner, FASLA, emerita professor of landscape architecture, Louisiana State University. (See ASLA Sponsors Gulf Coast Rebuilding Series at the National Building Museum in this issue of LAND Online.)

Finally, ASLA is participating in meetings arranged by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Hon. ASLA, to discuss a proposal to convene a regional dialogue to develop a long-term vision for rebuilding and restoring the Gulf region. Other participants included RPA, Smart Growth America, APA, AIA, AmericaSpeaks, the Brookings Institution, and the Alliance for Regional Stewardship. (See Hurry Up and Wait in this issue of LAND Online.)

Regeneration Symposium
Returning to the local level, the ASLA Louisiana Chapter is working with the Louisiana State University School of Landscape Architecture, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, to host a January symposium at LSU on reconstruction in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The symposium is scheduled to meet on a variety of topics including strategic environmental planning, site remediation, and post-hurricane recovery of urban forests and is tentatively scheduled for January 25–27.

It is hoped that the symposium will draw interest from firms and university programs interested in donating time and expertise to the landscape architecture needs of smaller communities along the Gulf Coast and that these interests can be matched up with communities seeking help. These firms and programs would then work with the local communities on a long-term basis to help them redevelop. For more on the regeneration symposium, listen to the ASLA Annual Meeting podcast, which features an interview with Chad Danos, ASLA, Louisiana Trustee, and Dana Brown, ASLA, Louisiana Chapter President-Elect.

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