Architecture and Planning for Cultural Preservation and Resilience

As architects and planners design their projects, they are finding themselves more deeply challenged to respond not only to evolving programmatic goals but also to planning frameworks, climate change, and community vision. This program will explore how two practitioners—a planner and an architect—have worked in a variety of different locations and contexts to create both processes and outcomes that respect cultural heritage and seek to engage the communities to shape projects in their environment.

In the early 21st century, there has been a tendency for design concepts initiated in a Western European context and climate to be applied worldwide; recognition has grown that successful and resilient planning must be developed with a sensitivity to culture and community. Sabine Malebranche will draw on her planning work in Haiti over the last 20 years, with specific reference to projects she has overseen in Ile à Vache and the Chardonnières city in Haiti's southern peninsula. Curtis Clay will draw on a selection of high-profile projects with the Overseas Building Operations division of the US Department of State. They will explore how each experience can act as a pilot for planning protocols that are regionally responsive. The presentations will be followed by an opportunity for peer-to-peer discussion of the main themes over a meal.

Schedule:
11:00 am: Gathering/Coffee
11:15 am: Presentations
12:15 pm: Moderated Discussion
12:45 pm: Audience Q&A
1:00 pm: Lunch and peer-to-peer table discussions

Speakers:
Curtis F. Clay, AIA, Director of Architecture, US Department of State, Bureau of Overseas Building Operations
Sabine Malebranche, Architect & Urbanist, Professor of Urban Planning, Haiti

Moderator:
Toni L. Griffin, Founder, urban American city (urbanAC LLC); Professor of Practice in Urban Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design

About the Speakers:
Curtis Clay, AIA, is the Director of Architecture at the US Department of State, Overseas Building Operations (OBO). He oversees a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar program that designs resilient, secure, and functional diplomatic facilities worldwide. He has planned and directed complex projects for OBO, led Park and Public Realm Development in the Washington, DC metro area with NoMA Business Improvement District, as well as worked with Perkins+Will and other private design firms. He is a licensed architect in Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Sabine Malebranche is a Haitian architect, urban planner and professor. She studied architecture at Faculté des Sciences (Haiti, 1980) and holds a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University (USA, 1984), as a Fullbright scholar. She has taught urban planning in Haiti for 25 years. As a national expert in urbanism, she has produced master plans for medium-sized towns commissioned by offices of the Haitian State including mayoral offices. She has developed design of urban landscapes through community planning. Currently she is leading research on cultural resilience to promote lakou system in public policies for sustainable urban planning.

About the Moderator:
Toni L. Griffin is founder of urban American city (urbanAC LLC), a planning and design practice working with public, private, and nonprofit partners to reimage, reshape, and rebuild more just cities and communities. urbanAC leads transformative projects rooted in addressing historic and current disparities involving race, class, and culture. The firm has collaborated with cities on the cusp of just social and economic recovery including strategic city plans for Detroit, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Ms. Griffin is also Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and is founding director of the Just City Lab. She has served as strategic advisor to several philanthropic organizations including The Heinz Endowments and Bloomberg Philanthropies, each looking to more deeply embed principles of just and equitable impact into their funding and evaluation criteria for investing in urban development, wealth creation and capacity building.