Historic Preservation in the Face of Climate Change Part III: Persist

Can green infrastructure, building reuse, and revisiting historic building and land use patterns make our communities more resilient in the face of climate change? With historic preservation serving as both the goal and the mechanism, this dialogue will address new challenges in living with water and density with preservation serving as a tool to power resilience.

Free to the public. Presented in partnership with Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.

Join the Facebook event here.

Moderator

Ella Camburnbeck is the Community Planning and Resilience Senior Grants Manager with GCR Inc. Formerly the director of Felicity Redevelopment Inc., a New Orleans nonprofit working to restore blighted historic properties throughout the Central City neighborhood, and former house director of the Beauregard-Keyes House and Garden Museum, Camburnbeck is passionate about using preservation as a prominent tool in the pursuit of a more resilient future. She earned a Master of Preservation Studies degree at the Tulane School of Architecture and a Bachelor of Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia.

Panelists

Amanda Coleman, NGICP is an architectural historian and an advocate for resilience and green infrastructure. She graduated from Tulane University’s Master of Preservation Studies program. While assisting with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority’s Community Adaptation Program, she examined challenges and opportunities for the program’s expansion from Gentilly to the Broad Street corridor. She currently explores water management design for historic rehabilitation projects and recently participated in Propeller’s Pitch NOLA – Water Challenge.

Atianna Cordova is a native of New Orleans and the founder of WATER BLOCK LLC. As an urban designer, researcher and educator, Atianna explores the role of art, culture and storytelling in disaster recovery and community development. She is recognized as LSU School of Architecture’s first McNair Research Scholar, a LSU Tiger Twelve recipient, a 2016 UC Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence Travel Fellow, a 2017 Salzburg Global Fellow, a 2018 4pt0 Schools Fellow, the co-winner of Propeller’s 2018 Water Challenge Pitch Competition, the Interim Executive Director for the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans and a 2019 IdeasCity Fellow. These acknowledgements highlight her international and national work identifying disaster recovery risks in vulnerable communities, creating design and environmental programs for youth, and advocating for inclusive land use planning and engagement in development. Some of these works include examining the culturally-led recovery efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti following the 2010 Earthquake; serving as a past board member for Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (a local community land trust); and serving as the analyst and facilitator for Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Blight Elimination Transition Subcommittee. Atianna received her M.Sc in Disaster Resilience Leadership from Tulane University, Bachelor of Architecture from LSU, and Certificate in Community Development Finance from the University of New Orleans.

Allison DeJong is the Senior Water Program Manager at Propeller, where she focuses on water policy and strategy, special projects, and supporting Propeller’s entrepreneurs and accelerator programs. Previously, she was a planner at GCR, where she contributed to numerous housing, transportation, and economic development plans and analyses throughout Louisiana, including securing over $240 million in CDBG-DR awards from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s National Disaster Resilience Competition. Allison developed benefit-cost analyses, application narratives, and contributed to community outreach strategies, resulting in millions of dollars in funding for innovative water management and coastal resilience projects. Allison is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and holds a BA in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Louisiana State University.

This is the third panel discussion in the 3-part Historic Preservation in the Face of Climate Change series.

Part 1: Document

Part 2: Adapt

Part 3: Persist

Historic Preservation in the Face of Climate Change

In New Orleans, we know that it doesn’t take a hurricane to cause catastrophic flooding damage to our homes and buildings. Heavy thunderstorms, strong winds, hail and other weather-related hazards are top of mind for most residents in the city. What role can historic preservation play in the face of climate-related issues such as these?

To meet the challenges of our increasingly complex relationship with water and weather, the field of preservation must develop creative strategies for historic buildings and neighborhoods to document in the face of loss, adapt in response to change, and persist against all odds. The Preservation Resource Center is hosting a three-part series to address the risks and challenges climate change presents for our community and the role preservation can play in our journey towards a more resilient future.

The series will examine what is at stake, how preservationists are currently responding and who our actions serve.