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NEWS
| OCTOBER 26, 2005
Architecture
Dean helps team plan New Orleans renewal
Gatzke and group hope to help
rebuild the city’s planning department.
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| The Shorthorn: Scott Russell |
| Architecture Dean Donald Gatzke
is working with Fernando Costa, Fort Worth City
Planning Director, who is taking a team to New Orleans
to help develop a plan reconstruction. |
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By Alicia
Kania
The Shorthorn staff
Architecture Dean Donald Gatzke is assisting a team that will aid
New Orleans in preparing for upcoming reconstruction.
Gatzke, former dean at Tulane University, said that when he heard
about the group, assembled by Fernando Costa, Fort Worth city planning
director, he contacted Costa and volunteered to help. Even though
all five positions were already filled, Gatzke said he decided to
help them “unofficially.”
“I’ve been consulting with the U.S. Green Building Council
and Costa,” he said. “I’m trying to establish
contact with other organizations in relation to New Orleans.”
The group’s goal is to recreate a planning department for
the city, which means hiring people to come up with solid ideas
on how to rebuild, Gatzke said. This is only a small part of the
reconstruction, but Gatzke said he believes it’s one of the
most important ones, as a city without a planning department cannot
accomplish much in the way of reconstruction.
“There are virtually no employees left in the planning department
who are still there [in New Orleans],” he said. “This
is not just about how to build new houses. It’s how you get
workers back, and how you start an economy back again.”
Gatzke said he has also been working to establish contacts for other
groups who want to help the city.
Also on the planning team is Grover Mouton III, director of the
Tulane University Regional Urban Design Center, whom Gatzke knows
from his time at the school.
When the team was developed, Gatzke said it was going to work through
the Federal Emergency Management Association, but it ended up as
representatives in the American Planning Association, which is working
directly with the city.
“Their client is the city of New Orleans,” Gatzke said.
“My understanding is that the city asked FEMA [to form a team]
and FEMA agreed, but for various reasons, it is out of the picture.”
Gatzke owns property in New Orleans and said he was recently able
to visit and check on the damages.
“I went down about two and a half weeks ago,” he said.
“One property had a piece of siding blown off of the garage,
a neighbor’s tree crushed a fence on another property, and
refrigerators have gone bad in the rental units, and that was about
it.”
Gatzke said there are not currently any official architecture student
projects on New Orleans reconstruction but that there will probably
be opportunities in the future.
“I haven’t encouraged it because so many people do not
have a clear understanding [of what needs to be done],” he
said. “Before you act, you have a responsibility to understand
what the problem is.”
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