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As for ideas, plenty of experts are spouting them already. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, the American Institute of Architects warned about the dangers of isolating temporary housing far from services and infrastructure. Other national organizations of planners and historic preservationists have weighed in and are sending volunteers to New Orleans to help. And in architecture schools across the country, disaster recovery has become a hot topic this term. Students at the Rural Studio at Auburn University in Alabama have just designed a prototype for a temporary shelter made from shipping containers (there are thousands of empty ones along the Gulf coast), which can be adapted for habitation for $2,500 each. They hope a representative of FEMA will come check them out next week. And at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, architect Frederic Schwartz switched the subject of his studio to New Orleans just as the term began; he plans to take his 12 students to the Big Easy next month for research. Schwartz brings a special perspective to his course: he spent more than a year working on proposals for Ground Zero in Manhattan. “The lesson from that is don’t let political people decide to make the rebuilding their legacy, as [New York Gov. George] Pataki did,” says Schwartz. “It isn’t anyone’s legacy. And beware when it gets taken over by real estate.”

- bill 12-12-2005 6:48 pm




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