Press Release

National Conference of Community Designers to Explore Recovery of the Gulf Coast

May 1, 2007, Baton Rouge, LA—The Great Gumbo: Stirring the Pot of Community Design, a conference at Louisiana State University (LSU), to be held June 3-5, 2007, will address community rebuilding in Louisiana’s Gulf Coast and in other parts of the country. This national gathering is organized by the Association for Community Design (ACD) and Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR).

Keynote presenters include Carol Bebelle, director of Ashé Cultural Arts Center of New Orleans; Bill Stallworth, Biloxi city councilman and director of East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center; Lolis Eric Elie, columnist for Times Picayune; Clifton James, president of the Urban Design Research Center; and Marsha Cuddeback, director of the Office of Community Design and Development at LSU.

The Great Gumbo will offer a unique conference format—discussion Cafés where conference participants can exchange ideas on topics such as community partnership networks, design-build programs, housing construction techniques, pedestrian-friendly street design, and collaborations of neighborhoods, organizations and universities.

The conference schedule also includes bus tours to recovery sites in New Orleans and a forum to discuss ways to strengthen community design and development organizations and how to engage citizens in design and rebuilding.

The Great Gumbo will follow a conference organized by Planners Network—Race, Class and Community Recovery: From the Neighborhood to the Nation and Beyond, to be held at the University of New Orleans, May 30-June 2, 2007. Discounts are offered for joint conference registration. Race, Class and Community Recovery, will confront injustice and the failures of planning after Hurricane Katrina and will feature the grassroots work of community-based organizations, planners and activists.

Saturday evening, June 2nd, ADPSR will honor recipients of their 2006 and 2007 Lewis Mumford Awards at a gala celebration at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans. ADPSR, ACD and Planners Network will also celebrate their 25th, 30th and 32nd anniversaries.

Conference sponsors include Enterprise Community Partners, Pratt Institute, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Planetizen, and many others. For more information on The Great Gumbo: Stirring the Pot of Community Design, please visit http://www.communitydesign.org/Annual_Conference.htm.

For information on Race, Class and Community Recovery: From the Neighborhood to the Nation and Beyond, please visit http://www.pn2007.org.

The Association for Community Design (ACD) is a network of individuals, organizations, and institutions committed to increasing the capacity of planning and design professions to better serve communities. ACD serves and supports practitioners, educators, and organizations engaged in community-based design and planning.
http://www.communitydesign.org

Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) works for peace, environmental protection, ecological building, social justice, and the development of healthy communities. ADPSR believes that design practitioners have a significant role to play in the well-being of our communities.
http://www.adpsr.org

Planners Network is an association of professionals, activists, academics, and students involved in physical, social, economic, and environmental planning in urban and rural areas, who promote fundamental change in our political and economic systems.
http://www.plannersnetwork.org

For more information contact:
Lynne Elizabeth and Stephen Goldsmith
Great Gumbo Conference Committee
gumbo@communitydesign.org