KNIGHT PROGRAM FACULTY AND FELLOWS CONTRIBUTE TO MISSISSIPPI RENEWAL FORUM AND SUBSEQUENT
GULF COAST REBUILDING EFFORTS

JANUARY 18, 2006 -- Less than two months after Hurricane Katrina, some of the nation’s most prominent planners and architects met for a marathon, six-day session on October 11-17, 2005 to begin drafting a comprehensive regional plan for rebuilding the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The Mississippi Renewal Forum, meeting in Biloxi, gathered a team of 120 architects, planners, development experts and other professionals. The team focused on 11 towns and three coastal communities, producing preliminary proposals for everything from moving railroad lines to transforming a Biloxi coastal highway into a swank casino row. Since the initial session, many of these experts have continued to focus on rebuilding in the area, and on November 30-December 2 there was a second event, a workshop, in which the team leaders from the Forum met with citizens in the communities.

Several Knight Program faculty members, fellows and former fellows have been involved in the rebuilding effort. Knight Program Director Charles Bohl participated in the Forum, as did Knight Professor Jaime Correa and School of Architecture Dean Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. School of Architecture Assistant

Dean Denis Hector also participated. The ten Knight Fellows present at the Forum were: Lolly Barnes (KF ’03), Rick Chellman (KF ’03), Geoff Dyer (KF ’05), Rick Hall (KF ’01), Michelle Jones (KF ’04), Philip Langdon (KF ’01), Neal Payton (KF ’02), Milt Rhodes (KF ’02), Tony Sease (KF ’05), Dhiru Thadani (KF ’01). Knight Fellows Neal Payton and Dhiru Thadani also participated in the workshop.

All participants donated much of their time at greatly reduced rates, or for free in many cases. Rick Chellman, Jaime Correa (Knight Professor in Community Building) and  Biloxi resident Lolly Barnes have continued working intensively in the area; Lolly Barnes is running the Gulf Coast field office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with Mississippi Heritage Trust, working on restoration of several historic homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“The devastation in the area was unbelievable – what you see on the news and in the papers doesn’t prepare you for the extent of the damage,” said Charles C. Bohl, Knight Program Director. “At the same time, it was heartening to be able to contribute to this early stage of the rebuilding effort. It was wonderful that ten of the Knight Program Fellows as well as three faculty members participated. This sharing of expertise and working together across disciplines is what the Knight Program is all about, and to see our philosophy in action through the Fellows’ work in this urgent situation was both gratifying for me personally and a testament to the caliber of our Fellows.”

The Forum was organized by the Congress for the New Urbanism, at the invitation of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Governor Barbour called the Forum “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to … decide what the coast will look like in 10 years, 20 years and beyond.” The Forum’s work was published in a comprehensive final report available at www.mississippirenewal.com.

###