Architecture & Design: Rebuilding NOLA

Today Ray "The Comeback Kid" Nagin introduced his guidelines for the New Orleans reconstruction effort. As the article adroitly notes, there was no actual timetable set as to what was going to happen when. I guess the bad times roll with the good in equal measure, ne c'est pas?

Architecture Week has a fantastic article that covers the obstacles faced in the massive effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast. The whole article is worth a read, but this leaped out at me:

A major problem is that some builders in the South are not accustomed to working with codes — or even with engineers, Lockwood explains, and implementing building codes is not easy.

Maybe I'm missing something terribly obvious, but why would this be?

In any event, I don't know what of the recent developments regarding the rebuilding effort are more frightening...the fact that KB Home is getting involved, or that Alphonse Jackson didn't think that some NOLA residents might be a little pissed off over the idea that their homes are being destroyed without any input or control from them. There's a great discussion about this at Housing Finance as well.

And just to make the subject gloomier, here's another visual reminder of what the recovery forces are up against:

The latter image is courtesy of Photos from Katrina, which I highly recommend for those who think this is just an issue of people whining about handouts.

Posted at July 5, 2006 05:04 PM

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Today Ray "The Comeback Kid" Nagin introduced his guidelines for the New Orleans reconstruction effort. As the article adroitly notes, there was no actual timetable set as to what was going to happen when. I guess the bad times roll with the good in equal measure, ne c'est pas? Architecture Week has a fantastic article that covers the obstacles faced in the massive effort to rebuild the Gulf Coast. The whole article is worth a read, but this leaped out at me: A major problem is that some builders in the South are not accustomed to working with codes — or even with engineers, Lockwood explains, and implementing building codes is not easy. Maybe I'm missing something terribly obvious, but why would this be? In any event, I don't know what of the recent developments regarding the rebuilding effort are more frightening...the fact that KB Home is getting involved, or that Alphonse Jackson didn't think that some NOLA residents might be a little pissed off over the idea that their homes are being destroyed without any input or control from them. There's a great discussion about this at Housing Finance as well. And just to make the subject gloomier, here's another visual reminder of what the recovery forces are up against: The latter image is courtesy of Photos from Katrina, which I highly recommend for those who think this is just an issue of people whining about handouts.