The climate crisis is changing the world. Some people are moving in the face of rising seas and extreme weather, and others are redesigning the places they live. But those making such plans and those most affected by them are not always the same. The challenges posed by climate change thus force architects, planners, engineers, and others charged with imagining the future of their communities to contend with enduring questions of democracy and justice.

This conference foregrounded Louisiana’s experience with these challenges, because on the Gulf Coast, the climate had already changed. New designs and infrastructures had reshaped how Louisianans live, just as evacuation, eviction, and emigration in the face of rising seas redefined where they live. All the while, as the United States confronts climate change it is already riven by stark inequalities. Escaping critical interrogation, technocratic plans promulgated in the name of “resilience” can not only reproduce, but exacerbate existing injustices across the country and beyond its borders. Many policies that promise security for some cause suffering for others. But must there be winners and losers in the pursuit of safety, justice, and democracy?

This event brought together architects, planners, scholars, artists, and others whose work engages with the challenges of planning for climate change. Using Louisiana as the case to “think with,” participants worked comparatively to evaluate the perils and promises of risk and retreat, given the imperatives of justice and democracy.

SCHEDULE

9:00 — Introductory Remarks

• ByWater Institute, Tulane University
• Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University

9:30 — Defining and Managing Risk

Who, and what, is at risk?

• Craig Colten, Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University
• Traci Birch, Coastal Sustainability Studio, Louisiana State University
• Zachary Lamb, Princeton Mellon Fellow in Urbanism and the Environment
• Monique Verdin, Another Gulf is Possible
• Respondent: Liz Koslov, Urban Planning, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles
• Moderator: Andy Horowitz, Assistant Professor, Department of History, School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University

11:15 — Evacuation, Emigration, Eviction

Who leaves their home—when, why, and how?

• Jay Arena, Sociology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY)
• Monica Farris, Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART), University of New Orleans
• Farrah Cambrice, Sociology, Prairie View A&M University
• Andreanecia Morris, Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance
• Respondent: Zaire Dinzey-Flores, Sociology, Rutgers
• Moderator: Fallon Samuels Aidoo, Jean Brainard Boebel Chair in Historic Preservation, Assistant Professor of Planning & Urban Studies, University of New Orleans

2:00 — Greenwashing

How do technocratic claims obscure injustice?

• Austin Allen, Design Jones LLC 
• Anthony Fontenot, Architecture, Woodbury School of Architecture
• Thom Pepper, Common Ground New Orleans
• Denise J. Reed, University of New Orleans
• Respondent: Daniel Aldana Cohen, Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
• Moderator: Carol McMichael Reese, Director of the City, Culture, and Community Ph.D. Program and Professor of Architecture, Tulane University

4:00 — Is This Democracy?

What kind of a challenge is climate change?

• Charles Allen, National Audubon Society
• Cedric Johnson, African American Studies and Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago
• Margarita Jover, Architecture, Tulane University
• Bryan Parras, Sierra Club
• Monxo Lopez, Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies, Hunter College
• Moderator: Reinhold Martin, Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University

6:00 — Closing Remarks and Reception

Organized by:

Fallon Samuels Aidoo, Jean Brainard Boebel Chair in Historic Preservation, Assistant Professor of Planning & Urban Studies, University of New Orleans

Andy Horowitz, Assistant Professor, Department of History, School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University

Carol McMichael Reese, PhD, Director of the City, Culture, and Community Ph.D. Proram; Professor of Architecture, Tulane University

Columbia University, Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture 

Sponsored by:

University of New Orleans: Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART), Department of Planning and Urban Studies

Tulane University: School of Architecture, ByWater Institute, New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Mellon Program in Community-Engaged Scholarship

Columbia University: Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture 

Of interest might also be a related symposium on March 30, 2019 at the University of New Orleans titled "Heritage at Risk: Climate Changes to Historic Preservation," which was organized and sponsored by university's Jean Brainard Boebel Endowed Chair in Historic Preservation and produced in conjunction with "Democracy in Retreat?"