"Taking a Longer View"

Hurricane Katrina flooded the media, breaking through the levees of our inattention. Environmental neglect collided with social inequity on the evening news before the local shooting of the day. Images from the streets of New Orleans, along the coasts of Mississippi, and across the interstate highways of the Gulf region challenged how we thought about our nation.

Interest, like oil supplies, peaks. Interest, like the tides, subsides. We move on. Natural disasters come and go: From Hurricane Andrew in 1992, through the Mississippi Floods of 1993, on to the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

Might Katrina be different? Might it present an opportunity for learning? For rethinking urbanism and regionalism? For rethinking architecture, historic preservation, interior design, and landscape architecture? For the whole notion of what is sustainable and what is not? For rethinking humanity in this first urban century? As the media flood recedes, might Katrina challenge us for a bit longer?

In our School, after the event, many students and faculty colleagues wanted to do something..., anything. We did what we could. Like other schools, we welcomed students and colleagues from New Orleans universities. Students, faculty, and staff volunteered at relief centers for evacuees. Symposia were organized, guest speakers hosted, and studio projects undertaken.

In this desire to do something, questions of appropriateness, opportunism, and timeliness arise. In New York City, my friend Bob Yaro of the Regional Plan Association experienced a similar outpouring of interest after the 9/11 attacks. With others, he organized the successful "Listening to the City" events. Now Bob has organized the major national design and planning organizations--the American Institute of Architects, the American Planning Association, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Urban Land Institute, and others--to collaborate in exploring future options for the Gulf Coast Region.

As part of this overall effort, we are mapping the environmentally sensitive areas of the Gulf Coast Region. The computer mapping software pioneer ESRI and the environmental consulting company EDAW are leading this endeavor. They are being supported by a voluntary technical advisory committee of academics and non-profit organization leaders. Universities from Harvard to the University of Washington are represented, as are Louisiana State and Tulane universities. In addition to me, three other deans are involved from Clemson University, Georgia Tech University, and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Vice President for Research from Arizona State University.

Our goal is not to create science, but rather to collect the best available information about natural hazards, important resource production areas, ecologically significant lands, and valuable cultural resources. In addition to leading scholars and practitioners in geographic information systems mapping, the technical advisory committee includes geologists, landscape ecologists, transportation planners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects, water resource specialists, demographers, and regional planners.

When the French sited New Orleans in the early 18th century, they used the best information of their day. The city persisted and thrived as a result of that wisdom. Outside forces altered the regional context of the city. Now, we have the challenge to apply the best knowledge of our time to rebuild the region.

So what does this mean for you, this fall's School of Architecture graduates? First, there are some places better to build than others. Vitruvius knew this 20 centuries ago. Some places are healthier and safer than others. Second, we need to be concerned about social equity and justice in our designs and plans. Everyone needs good housing, convenient access to work, and places to recreate. The built environment really matters to our future.

This fall, we reach a milestone in the School. Xuemei Li is the first graduate of our new Master of Landscape Architecture program. We added landscape architecture three years ago to strengthen our School and to compliment our graduate offerings in architecture, community and regional planning, and preservation. Our new program is fulfilling this aspiration.

As we rethink architecture, planning, urbanism, interior design, and sustainability in the wake of Katrina, I believe that the landscape perspective will prove invaluable to our future conception of buildings, communities, and regions.

—Fritz Steiner