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Rebuilding New Orleans

Architect Magazine Profiles Darren Walker and Examines the New Orleans Recovery Plan in May 1 Issue

May 10, 2007; Architect Magazine
Excerpts

The Grantmaker

In a May 1st profile of Rockefeller Foundation Vice President Darren Walker by Elizabeth A. Evitts in Architect Magazine, he is described as having done 'the unimaginable' in the planning process to rebuild New Orleans. The article is part of a series called 'Profiles in Power: The most influential people in architecture aren't necessarily practitioners,' and it goes on to say that 'Walker transformed a top-down planning process into an inclusive one.'

The profile goes on to say,

"Without an appreciation of the wisdom of local knowledge, the best thinkers in urban planning will fail in the redevelopment," Walker says today from his office in New York. The Unified New Orleans Plan, a comprehensive vision for rebuilding the city that was supported by more than $10 million from the Rockefeller Foundation, was released in March...

...This summer, Walker will convene another important meeting: an ambitious global urban summit to address the fact that, for the first time in history, the majority of the world's population will reside in urban regions. "If our mission is to help build more-resilient people and communities, that means that we need more-resilient cities," Walker says.

New Orleans Recovery Plan Released
City looks to feasible goals, targeted reinvestment to attract private development

May 10, 2007; Architect Magazine
Excerpts

In the same edition, a news story by Bradford Mckee said, 'Edward Blakely, the city's head of recovery management, emphasized the inherent limits of the plan, which is intended to be more surgical than sweeping in its scope.'

The story goes on to say:

“The scope of it is deceivingly simple,” says architect Allen Eskew, principal of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple in New Orleans. “Blakely himself says he wanted to have some early successes.” Eskew adds that it was crucial for Blakely's list of target sites to seem modest and feasible, given the city's “planning fatigue” and frustration with all levels of government. “I'm very pleased that Dr. Blakely has come out with an action plan instead of a planning plan,” he says...

...After Blakely's plan was announced, residents and city officials seemed to be putting stock in its realistic aspirations, particularly after a run of widely criticized plans that were seen as either too restrictive or too extravagant and costly...

“People can start to see where this targeted reinvestment is going to occur,” says Jane S. Brooks, professor and chair of the planning and urban studies department at the University of New Orleans. Brooks attributes the Blakely plan's wider acceptance to the broad public participation that led up to it. “People are ready to understand that this is the first wave of investment,” Brooks adds. “If this works, maybe there will be another wave of investment. There's no miracle here. What he's trying to do is use public money to attract private money” for neighborhood reinvestment.

© 2006 Hanley Wood, LLC. All rights reserved.

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