The $14.5 billion flood-protection system built around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina seems to have succeeded at keeping the city from going underwater again. — The New York Times

After three hurricanes made landfall in Louisiana over the past few weeks efforts to recover after the storms may boost the state's otherwise bleak jobs market. — The Advocate

In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and drainage systems.

One of those grants, $48 million for Isle de Jean Charles, is something new: the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the impacts of climate change. — the New York Times

The question of the monuments’ removal comes after several US states...have withdrawn the Confederate flag, acknowledging it as a symbol of racial hate...The [statues] are on public land 'which means that African American tax money is being used to maintain them', [says Carol Bebelle, co-chair of the Mayor’s committee for racial reconciliation]. 'What does it mean to be a city that pays tribute to part of its history that was about oppressing the major portion of its population?' — The Art Newspaper

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development embraced the trapezoid, dubbed Iberville-Treme, along with an exhaustive New Orleans plan that called for 2,314 apartments constructed within 54 months.

Yet after 48 months — four years — the work in New Orleans is far from done.

If construction continues at the same pace in coming years, the promised 2,314 apartments won’t be complete until 2026. — nextcity.org

Built largely in secret and under decidedly unorthodox circumstances, the Whitney [Plantation] had been turned into a museum dedicated to telling the story of slavery — the first of its kind in the United States.

Located on land where slaves worked for more than a century, in a state where the sight of the Confederate flag is not uncommon, the results are both educational and visceral. — nytimes.com

Internationally renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban is one of the biggest names on the roster of New Orleans' international art festival, Prospect.3. But his exhibit at Longue Vue House and Gardens is a non-starter. [...]

Unfortunately, whatever plans Ban had for presenting a structure or artwork at Prospect.3 must have fallen through, because the exhibit at Longue Vue is comprised of nothing more than a sleepy selection of miniature architectural models and photos. — nola.com

The US state of Louisiana is slowly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico as its fragile wetlands are eroded by rising sea levels. Approximately 75 square kilometres are lost each year and the US Geological Survey has warned that the entire habitat - which represents 40% of all wetlands in the US - could be destroyed within 200 years. The loss is partly down to natural evolutionary processes, but experts say human behaviour... has made the region more vulnerable to storm surges. — BBC

Olafur Eliasson has tried something else. For his latest site-specific project, which opens on 20 August, the artist has transformed the entire south wing of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark into a convincing riverbed – a messy, stony accumulation of sedimentary rock and watery channels that threatens to silt up the white space of the gallery entirely. The result is an uncanny collision of manmade and natural views, and a Sublime reminder of the slow power of nature to erode [...]. — apollo-magazine.com

The annual Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Great Places Awards highlight the invaluable relationship between people and their experience with physical space.

For its 2014 program, EDRA chose six winning projects that exemplify professional and scholarly excellence in environmental and experiential design. — bustler.net