Announcement From Andrés Duany

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Return to Mississippi Rebuilding Charrette

On the 20th of September, the Governor of Alabama, Haley Barbour, and James Barksdale, his delegate for reconstruction announced to the press that there would be a design charrette for the coastal communities of Mississippi from the 11th to the 18th of next month.

This is the chronology of events so that all may understand what roles certain people played in order that we move forward in a manner as free of friction (and recrimination) as possible.

1. On the 9th of September I received a call from Steve Mouzon alerting me to a phone call received from Michael Barranco and David Trigiani. They are both architects from Jackson Mississippi. The first is the town architect for a DPZ project called Lost Rabbit, which is near Jackson. Steven Mouzon was leading the guild that was designing the buildings. I returned the call and was forwarded to Leland Speed, the executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. After assuring me that he knew about us and that he had indeed planted many copies of Suburban Nation into capable hands, he asked if I would be willing to help in the rebuilding, and come to meet the Governor. I accepted.

2. On the 11th of September, I arrived in Jackson and on the 12th, spent the day with Michael, David, Leland and Jim Barksdale who has been appointed by the Governor to lead the rebuilding. They had invited David Hardy, an architect from the devastated coast (Jackson is about two hours drive inland). We formulated a plan in which the coastal communities would be offered charrettes. They were very clear that they wanted DPZ to do it and I was equally clear that we could not, and should not, do it but that the CNU should be brought in and that I would undertake to arrange the organization of a multi-disciplinary and multi-team charrette. There was resistance to this, as DPZ is a known quantity among those present and CNU is not. Nevertheless, I insisted and we moved on. We agreed that the three Mississippi architects would take care of arranging the local participants. The Governor came in from a meeting with President Bush and was presented with the prospect and told Jim Barksdake to get it done. Jim told me that he wanted a proposal "sooner rather than later." The next two days I traveled to Baton Rouge and to Houston--but that is another story.

3. I spoke to John Norquist the next day and he gave me a go-ahead. I did a preliminary roster of who would be good at this charrette, taking into account the necessary skills and giving frank preference to those with whom I knew to be very fast, skilled and, above all, good charrette team players (I know of no better criteria). I then sent to about seventy persons a notice to hold the dates of October 11-18. (If anyone has difficulty with these, know that DPZ had to move over four contracted charrettes.) Each of us who goes must really want to, not least, because the terms of compensation are about $500/day. This means that many of us will be effectively subsidizing this from $300 to $2,000 per diem, given our billing rates. I sent an outline of dates, personnel, agreed-upon compensation, and other things to Leland on the 14th.

4. Leland called on Friday the 16th requesting a formal letter from John Norquist on CNU stationery. That was sent on the 17th. We held back the press lest it be called off. On the 17th there was permission from Leland for the Knight Ridder Newspaper report that you may have seen. On the 20th Debra Hempel of DPZ was on the Gulf Coast with Michael Barranco and with the delegated powers of Leland Speed attempting the impossible to find seventy-five sleeping rooms and a 10,000 ft. charrette room. She did it. That same afternoon Jim Barksdale, in the presence of the Governor, and with the President in the vicinity, made the announcement. AP began their interviews, as did New Urban News, so you will be hearing about it soon.

5. I have been preparing schedules and specific instructions for the CNU consultants. Michael Barranco and David Hardy have been doing the same for the Mississippi consultants. Now is the time to determine and to verify who will be there. That is perhaps the most difficult part, as it could lead to bad feelings. One of the reasons why I have been so explicit with this chronology is that I would like everyone to know that this project first came to DPZ and was then granted to the CNU, and for that reason I may be qualified to put the team together. The other reason is that the CNU has an unknown record with its assignments of special projects, effectiveness of its task forces, etc.

6. It has been a very difficult task to design the proper team with so much talent--and above all, with so many friends lobbying. I have already turned down some petitions. This was gracefully accepted and for that I am grateful. All I can say is, the selection will lead to a great team, but not a perfect one--and there will be additional charrettes almost immediately--so your ability to contribute will be fulfilled in a matter of time.

Thank you all,

Andrés

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Last edited by Johanna Nyden.   Page last modified on September 27, 2005