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Contact Petra Marar 518-461-3938 [email protected]
February 08, 2010FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW ORLEANS WORKSHOP UNITES LEADERS TO IMPLEMENT SUSTAINABLE RELATIONSHIP WITH WATER
NEW ORLEANS -- As a call to address the threats and opportunities of living with water, the workshop Building Resilience: Implementing Innovative, Sustainable Flood Mitigation Solutions for the Gulf Coast will gather diverse experts, including keynote speaker Gen. Russel Honoré, in New Orleans February 26 & 27 at the Old U.S. Mint, 400 Esplanade Avenue. Local and global practitioners, policy-makers and community stakeholders are invited to share best practices and initiate community action and policy plans for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. To register and view complete information, visit www.resilienceworkshop.org. Professional development credits will be available for the AIA, LAPELS and, potentially, the USGBC.
Lead organizer Dr. Elizabeth C. English, of the Buoyant Foundation Project, seeks to broaden two vital dialogues in this region: the sharing with local practitioners of innovative flood mitigation techniques currently in practice in Europe, and the sharing with local community stakeholders and policy makers of successful strategies for overcoming administrative obstacles and implementing new, sustainable solutions that promote community resilience.
The workshopʼs plenary speakers include a German expert on cascading levee systems, a Dutch expert on amphibious housing, and the long-time chair of the US Army Corps of Engineers National Non-Structural/Flood Proofing Committee. Convening partners, from which many of the panelists are drawn, include: the Buoyant Foundation Project; FutureProof, LLC; Global Green; Groundwork New Orleans; Innovative Green Solutions; the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development; Sustainable Ecosystem Restoration, LLC; the Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology at UNO; Our School at Blair Grocery; the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy; the American Institute of Architects New Orleans Chapter; the Applied Technology Council and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Ontario, Canada.
An opening reception will be held at the new Rock ʻNʼ Bowl on Carrollton, February 25th. Group-rate accommodations have been arranged at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter. Registration includes all receptions, speeches, panels and lunches. Registration is $225 until February 15th, when the fee will increase to $250. Applications for reduced registration fees from students and those in hardship are welcome.
For more information, contact Dr. Elizabeth C. English at 504-717-5098, [email protected]; www.resilienceworkshop.org.
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Dr. Elizabeth C. English is founder and director of the The Buoyant Foundation Project (BFP) and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Dr. English was formerly Associate Professor - Research at the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center in Baton Rouge and Assistant Professor of Architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans.
The mission of the BFP, founded in 2006, is to support the recovery of New Orleans' unique and endangered traditional cultures by providing a strategy for the safe and sustainable restoration of traditional housing. Flood-proofing the city's traditional elevated wooden shotgun houses by retrofitting them with buoyant (amphibious) foundations avoids the destruction of neighborhood character that results from permanent static elevation high off the ground. Buoyant Foundations provide increased safety and resilience in cases of extreme flooding and support the restoration of both the physical and the social structures of pre-Katrina New Orleans neighborhoods. Visit http://www.buoyantfoundation.org for more information.
