Rebuilding the Mississippi Gulf: Architects Respond

In October, while a charrette, conducted by the Congress for the New Urbanism tackled the problems of recreating the storm-crushed Mississippi Coast’s towns and cities, a number of architects and planners voiced the following suggestions and warnings:

"What concerns me is the word "new" in New Urbanism. I think it needs to be more of a vernacular urbanism. The charette leaders really have to know our vernacular, define it for themselves, and know how we should use it to inform what we put back. The magic happens when you bring the vernacular and the zeitgeist together. We don't need Seasides all over the coast. We need towns that look like the towns that were there." —Belinda Stewart, AIA, Belinda Stewart Architects, Eupora, Mississippi

“There’s a massive amount that will have to be rebuilt. It may be that many neighborhoods won’t come back. Haste will create a tendency to build back below current building codes. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. There will have to be planning to get easy access in and out of town. There will be political pressure to rebuild right, and I think there’ll be money for planning. Nobody’s going to want to go through this agony again. Hurricanes are two, three times as frequent as in the ’70s.” —Terrance Brown, FAIA, ASCG Incorporated, Albuquerque, New Mexico; chair, AIA Disaster Assistance program

“After Hurricane Camille nearly leveled this area in `69, Metasystems Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for whom I was the point man on the ground, recommended not allowing low-lying areas to be rebuilt. We favored placing new development north of the beaches along Interstate 10 and that low-lying areas be reserved for public parks and the like. Owners of beachfront properties weren't interested in selling at discounted prices to public entities. We also recommended a unified building code for a narrow inundation area, using Camille as a benchmark--150-mile-per-hour wind speeds and 25-foot tidal surges. What was implemented was a more modest code used in Florida. The thought was that the cost of our code would be too onerous.

Overall, our recommendations were implemented only where dictated by cost or federal requirements." —Robert Tannen, New Orleans artist, consultant in urban and regional planning to DMJM-Harris

“In the Gulf people tend to not want to adhere to codes. Most of the residential construction wasn't built to current building codes. Developers and builders are going to have to be mandated to build quite differently than for suburban or tract developments.

Hindsight being 20/20, coastal erosion is what needs to be focused on. That's the thread common to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The barrier islands that were shock absorbers for tidal surges have been totally eroded. How do you create buffers against tidal surges?

I think rebuilding will be largely driven by multi-national AE corporations that already have contractual relationships with FEMA, such as Flour Daniels, Halliburton, the Shaw Group, and DMJM-Harris." —Skipper Post, FAIA, Post Architects; past president, AIA New Orleans

“After a disaster, the sense of loss encourages conservatism, wanting to just get back what is lost. People who've lived in a place generation after generation won't want a visionary 21st century town, and governments are least able to move in visionary ways.

I don't think that we build communities in America. We build pieces of communities in a messy way. I have yet to see New Urbanist charettes lead to anything. Our democratic processes are so slow and inefficient, there'll be five years of discussions” —Frances Halsband, FAIA, whose firm Kliment/Halsband, New York, designed the Dan M. Russell, Jr. United States Courthouse in Gulfport, (2003)

“The Mississippi Gulf Coast is no longer; it's like Pick-up Sticks. You drive down Coastal Highway 90 and you see beautiful wooden steps leading to nothing. When I toured the area with a church group, people were about their business. They weren't complaining. They're really resilient. I believe the majority will be back. It's exciting.

The charette process won't be outsiders coming in and telling the locals what to do. It will introduce principles that can make our places better.

To bring some structures up to stricter codes won't be affordable. Maybe we build less expensively but design schools to be hurricane shelters. There are issues like that and how we capture the very unique aspects that were the Gulf Coast.” —Michael Barranco, AIA, Barranco Architecture, Jackson, Mississippi, who convinced state officials to invite Duany to organize the planning charette

“We don't want a rushed process, and we don't want to rebuild the coast exactly as it was. A lot of people agree.

You have to understand the dynamics of the Gulf Coast. It used to be a vacation and resort area for Louisiana and then changed with casinos building on barges. The casinos own land and will want to start building immediately. You also have to understand that each community has its own identity and each lost so many older homes that helped shape identity. Charette organizers will have to send many teams to work with each community.

To plan the entire Gulf, about 120 miles of coastline, is overwhelming.” —Richard McNeel, AIA, Johnson Bailey Henderson McNeel Architects, Jackson, Mississippi