NEW ORLEANS – The Greater New Orleans Foundation, in partnership with the City of New Orleans, invites the public to a presentation by renowned Danish architect Flemming Rafn Thomsen at the Foundation’s new Center for Philanthropy, 919 St. Charles Ave., Thursday, Dec. 8, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Thomsen is the founder of the Danish architecture firm Tredje Natur (Third Nature) – a trailblazing design firm that got its name from the premise that thriving cities are ones that successfully combine urban and natural environments. Rather than planning and designing as if cities and nature are at odds with each other, Thomsen believes that cities like New Orleans can be extremely successful in the face of climate change if it integrates nature into its urban fabric.
Thomsen is in town to kick off the Urban Water Series, produced in partnership with the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the City of New Orleans and the Surdna Foundation. Following the free public lecture on Dec. 8, Thomsen will lead a full-day Technical Master Class for landscape, planning and design professionals as well as staff from several parish governments who will immerse themselves in how the Greater New Orleans region can be improved by this way of thinking.
“New Orleans gets more rainfall than most other cities in our country and, as a result, we’ve spent most of our history trying to pump it out of our city,” said Andy Kopplin, Greater New Orleans Foundation president and CEO. “This turns out to be expensive and has produced unintended consequences like increased subsidence which puts our communities at greater risk from hurricanes and sea level rise. Instead, our goal should be to manage our rainfall in ways that reduce these risks by introducing more green space and water management features into our urban landscape. Doing so will improve our quality of life and help reduce our future flooding and subsidence risks.”
The public lecture is free, but seats are limited in the Center for Philanthropy’s Chevron Learning Center.