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“The studio is trans-disciplinary,” said Jeff Carney, an assistant professor in the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture who serves as the studio’s director. “All of our projects engage at least three disciplines, primarily drawn from the LSU School of the Coast and Environment, the LSU College of Engineering, and the LSU College of Art & Design, but also joined by students and faculty of law, history, geography, and philosophy and religious studies.” Joining Carney on the studio’s advisory board are Executive Director Robert Twilley, a former LSU faculty member who is now the vice president for research at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Associate Director Lynne Carter, who is also associate director of the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program; LSU School of Architecture Professor and Director Jori Erdman; LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture Professor Elizabeth Mossop and LSU College of Engineering Professor Clint Wilson. A board of university representatives and external advisors also aids in the studio’s efforts. A community based studio located in the university’s Design Building, CSS projects are developed through collaboration with its local partners, Carney said. “Our work is subject to input and review by community members and other outside experts, and the project teams take all of those inputs and develop remarkable new ways to accomplish the projects’ multi-purpose goals,” he said. CSS is a place where scientists, engineers and designers come together to intensively study and respond to issues at the intersection of settlement, coastal restoration, flood protection and the economy, Carney said. Often pitted against one another, these themes are in fact
bound together through their primary relationship to the Mississippi River. “The river is the shared backbone to our economy, environment, and way of life,” he said.
Saving the coast Since its formation in 2009, the studio has been a part of numerous coastal environment studies, with its members’ works being honored both nationally and internationally. In the studio’s first year of operation, its primary project concerned the Central Wetlands Unit and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Through studies, it was found that Hurricane Katrina’s disproportionate toll on the Lower 9th Ward was directly related to the pre-existing environmental degradation of the natural environment surrounding New Orleans. The studio’s design was driven by the concept of a robust wetland zone that supports a resilient natural environment alongside sustained human settlement. In the project’s vision, the northern part of the Lower 9th Ward is transformed to optimize its location on the water’s edge. Dense housing and community buildings are concentrated in infrastructural corridors; schools and other institutions benefit from the wetland. Large open spaces provide opportunities for urban agriculture and stormwater retention. Over the course of the year, a team of architecture, landscape architecture, coastal ecology, economics, and engineering faculty and students designed new strategies for this region’s future. This comprehensive view ranges from the neighborhood to the region and showcases the interrelationships that extend across different scales. Community outreach continues on this project with the