David Dixon Explores Lessons from Post-Katrina Planning
Updated: 4 hours ago
At the biennial Morrison Memorial Lecture, Dixon shared lessons learned from leading post-Katrina planning for New Orleans.
To mark the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, America’s worst natural disaster, Dixon, FAIA, delivered the keynote address at the 2025 Morrison Lecture, “We’re Not Done Yet: A New Era of Opportunity (and Imperative) for New Orleans.”
Dixon began his talk with comments he had made in an interview with Architect Magazine on what the Master Plan could mean for New Orleans: For a city without a strong culture of citywide planning before Katrina, this “plan, created through a community-based process,
…establishes a credible, legitimate foundation for:
Zoning, capital improvements, and land use policies
Aggressive city leadership for redeveloping 60,000 vacant and blighted lots; diversifying the economy; and protecting the region from the impacts of rising seas
Establishing the essential role of equity in economic growth
…ends the debate between preservation and innovation—New Orleans’ cultural heritage is its most potent weapon in attracting investment and talent.
…forges a social compact to nurture a new culture of planning as a partner with politics in shaping the city’s future.” And it provides a common ground on which white and black New Orleanians can forge a shared future.
Dixon also noted that, for a city that had suffered from economic stagnation for decades and was overly reliant on its low-wage visitor economy,
“New Orleans’ recovery is an ongoing commitment to building a more resilient city, expanding opportunity, and ensuring that people across the community share in its future.” — David Dixon, FAIA
