Reed Kroloff is an architectural writer and commentator living in Washington, DC. He has served as Director of the famed Cranbrook Academy of Art, Dean of Architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans (during and after Hurricane Katrina), and Editor in Chief of Architecture magazine.
His presentation Lessons from Adversity looked at New Orleans and Detroit, and was utterly relevant to Christchurch in terms of planning, architecture, and life. Here are some notes and tweets from this session – words literally cannot convey it, as Reed’s stunning slideshow of images, examples, and infographics were at the heart of this talk.
His messages were:
- Sympathy lasts for ten minutes.
- Governments don’t care, people care.
- Money is thicker than water.
- Planning is important.
- Stop planning already.
- Be prepared.
- Get a story.
- People are resilient.
A city entirely underwater for 8 weeks. New Orleans. #wordchch Reed Kroloff.
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
Detroit 18.6% unemployment. Property values went down 80%. Reed Kroloff #wordchch
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
“Half the city is vacant”. Audience has gone silent looking at abandoned suburbs and buildings. #wordchch
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
Reed Kroloff: Governments don’t care; people care #wordchch
— Raf Manji (@rafmanji) August 29, 2014
Katrina fatigue first mentioned 6 weeks after disaster says Reed Kroloff. I wonder how long #chch fatigue took to be talked of. #wordchch
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
Photos of people in Superdome v. distressing. 5 days with no food. People died in Katrina who didn’t need to. #wordchch Reed Kroloff
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
“It happens very slowly … you have to push the government”. #wordchch Lessons from Adversity.
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
“I think it is important for Christchurch to look at New Orleans … politicians say “Everyone of you gets everything you want”. #wordchch
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 30, 2014
“Do the planning from the neighbourhood out”. #wordchch Reed Kroloff. Lessons from adversity.
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
“It would be absolutely wrong to forget what has happened. Dresden is wrong”. #wordchch Reed Kroloff
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 30, 2014
Reed Kroloff ending with “the romance of the city is being brought back.” #wordchch
— CherylBernstein (@CherylBernstein) August 30, 2014
Detroit renaissance led by the arts community. #wordchch
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 29, 2014
We have Mardi Gras, jazz funerals, even our own literary festival. A brilliant eye-opening #wordchch session by Reed Kroloff. Bravo
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 30, 2014
Question about Cathedral – crowd groans. “It is what it represents that matters”. Reed Kroloff. #wordchch
— ChChCityLibraries (@ChristchurchLib) August 30, 2014
Reed enjoyed our “jaunty” Re:START Mall, and reckons Christchurch people are a lot like New Orleans folk – practical and proud. We went away saying Yo.
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