DESIGNING THE URBAN JUNGLE
LSU accelerates development of new program in response to Katrina

With visions of storm ravaged cities and neighborhoods filling our minds, it may be difficult to imagine what the future of places like New Orleans will be. The LSU College of Art & Design has plans in mind that will reshape communities throughout the state and provide a new urban vision of the future. With an upcoming program in urban and community design, they will be able to provide a strong professional workforce full of new ideas that can help bring life back to our cities.

An urban and community design program has been in development for a few years, but with the recent strike of Hurricane Katrina, the plans have been accelerated. There are hopes that the program will be prepared for implementation by the end of the year. Even now students from the College of Art & Design have been involved in plans for retail redevelopment on the Government Street corridor in Baton Rouge. Projects like this will take place in other cities and towns as well and serve as practicum for students in the program. These kinds of practicum may involve anywhere from fifteen to eighteen students and could last as long as two years.

Urban design involves more than visual designs and building layouts. Issues like land use, settlement patterns, zoning codes, and environmental effects are critical. For this reason, other LSU units such as the Departments of Geography & Anthropology and Political Science and the School for the Coast & Environment will be part of an interdisciplinary approach for the program. Over time, the program will be able to link a cadre of professionals with the knowledge and expertise to guide the process of urbanization.

The field of urban and community design takes a broad approach to city planning. Instead of thinking about one building at a time, the focus is on entire areas and how they will work together within the city as a whole. It takes the environmental characteristics and natural beauty of an area into consideration and capitalizes on the idea that every location is unique. The surroundings in which we live and work have a strong impact on our lives; urban and community design can make these locations more beautiful, ecological, and also more inviting to businesses that can enhance the economic vitality of a region.

“The most important asset that any company is interested in is its workforce. The workforce is increasingly filled with young people who want to live in vibrant, intense, urbanized areas,” says David Cronrath, dean of the College of Art & Design.

With the help of students and professionals in programs like this, it will be possible to rebuild places like New Orleans and the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast more quickly. A city is a dynamic entity interwoven with the lives of people within it. Urban and community design can help to reestablish lives more quickly, but also provide plans and visions for a community’s future. –Melanie Haley

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from Storm Issue 2005