Seaside Planner DPZ To Help Rebuild MS Coast
September 21, 2005
BILOXI — The state of Mississippi is fielding offers of help from architectural planners, engineers and management consultants from around the country who are interested in helping rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
"These folks are offering their services anywhere from totally free to partially free," Leland Speed, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, told The Sun Herald.
"We also have offers from third parties that are interested in funding planning activities," Speed said.
Companies that receive building contracts would be among those who will help foot the architectural and planning costs.
Speed said the designers will work with local officials and planners.
"Whatever is going to be done is going to have to be done with the total input of the local professionals and elected public officials," he said. "Nothing is going forward that they don't agree on."
Jerry Creel, director of community development for the city of Biloxi, said he'd be willing to listen to anybody who wants to help rebuild. He said it is a planner's dream to design a community from square one.
"Certainly, the storm brought a lot of disaster to the coast, and words can't describe the damage and the deaths that came with the storm," Creel said. "However, if there is a bright spot to some of this, it's opened the doors for bigger and better development."
Among those interested in helping is Andres Duany, a planner best known for conceptually designing the traditional town of Seaside in the Florida Panhandle.
Duany is co-principal of the planning and design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co. along with his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. The Miami-based firm is widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, an international movement that seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment.
"In Mississippi it's about getting it done right, having it better than it was before. This is a tremendous opportunity to do that," Duany said. "We want to create areas that are more diverse, less auto dependent, more environmentally friendly, and more secure from hurricanes."
Duany said he talked with Gov. Haley Barbour this past week about the rebuilding of such communities as Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula.
While nothing has been finalized, Duany said he hopes to recruit as many as 50 national and international firms and pair up their planners and designers with local officials on projects of varying scale.
"It's all about bringing in absolutely the best practices from the United States and abroad and providing it to the local officials, planners and stakeholders," Duany said.
Most of the firms would work for cost, or about one-third to one-quarter of their usual fees, Duany said.
"These firms are not looking for work," he said.
Duany's firm has experience with post-disaster reconstruction. DPZ and Co. drew up a plan for the reconstruction of Florida City, including its city hall, after Hurricane Andrew flattened much of the rural town south of Miami in 1992
Architects, engineers offer to help rebuild coast
Article from the Clarion-LedgerBILOXI — The state of Mississippi is fielding offers of help from architectural planners, engineers and management consultants from around the country who are interested in helping rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
"These folks are offering their services anywhere from totally free to partially free," Leland Speed, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, told The Sun Herald.
"We also have offers from third parties that are interested in funding planning activities," Speed said.
Companies that receive building contracts would be among those who will help foot the architectural and planning costs.
Speed said the designers will work with local officials and planners.
"Whatever is going to be done is going to have to be done with the total input of the local professionals and elected public officials," he said. "Nothing is going forward that they don't agree on."
Jerry Creel, director of community development for the city of Biloxi, said he'd be willing to listen to anybody who wants to help rebuild. He said it is a planner's dream to design a community from square one.
"Certainly, the storm brought a lot of disaster to the coast, and words can't describe the damage and the deaths that came with the storm," Creel said. "However, if there is a bright spot to some of this, it's opened the doors for bigger and better development."
Among those interested in helping is Andres Duany, a planner best known for conceptually designing the traditional town of Seaside in the Florida Panhandle.
Duany is co-principal of the planning and design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Co. along with his wife, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. The Miami-based firm is widely recognized as a leader of the New Urbanism, an international movement that seeks to end suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment.
"In Mississippi it's about getting it done right, having it better than it was before. This is a tremendous opportunity to do that," Duany said. "We want to create areas that are more diverse, less auto dependent, more environmentally friendly, and more secure from hurricanes."
Duany said he talked with Gov. Haley Barbour this past week about the rebuilding of such communities as Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula.
While nothing has been finalized, Duany said he hopes to recruit as many as 50 national and international firms and pair up their planners and designers with local officials on projects of varying scale.
"It's all about bringing in absolutely the best practices from the United States and abroad and providing it to the local officials, planners and stakeholders," Duany said.
Most of the firms would work for cost, or about one-third to one-quarter of their usual fees, Duany said.
"These firms are not looking for work," he said.
Duany's firm has experience with post-disaster reconstruction. DPZ and Co. drew up a plan for the reconstruction of Florida City, including its city hall, after Hurricane Andrew flattened much of the rural town south of Miami in 1992
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