Planners, architects and landscape architects designing New Orleans : disciplinary differences in developing the unified plan

Abstract

Designing cities is a complex proposition. Planners, architects and landscape architects all center their practice on aspects of this proposition. As such, their respective disciplines share the realm of urban design. This thesis attempts to understand how professionals from these three groups work as urban designers by testing the hypothesis that professional training and affiliation dictates distinct differences in how urban plans are developed by planners, architects or landscape architects. Relying on the American educational and professional associations for each discipline, the thesis proposes three spectra to contrast the disciplines: The Role of Process, Understanding of Physical Space, and Ultimate Goals. These spectra are applied to cases studies of Unified New Orleans Plan recovery plan development in three of New Orleans' 13 planning districts. The cases focus on the professional staff for each district, which include one planning firm, one architecture firm and one landscape architecture firm. The cases demonstrate predictive connections between planning training and concepts and the planning firm's performance and architecture training and concepts and the architecture firm's performance.

(cont.) There is less predictive evidence in the case of landscape architecture. The challenges of using a quasi-experimental design, coupled with the intensely complex nature of working in a post-disaster environment in New Orleans, limit the conclusive value of the findings. However, there is a strong enough apparent correlation between the initial predictions and what actually occurred in the cases to warrant further exploration of the hypothesis. As long as planners, architects and landscape architects continue to share the practice of urban design, increasing our understanding about their unique approaches to this work will support greater efficiencies in local projects and a more rigorous and fruitful tradition of city design overall.