New orleans architect looks to dutch flood management after hurricane katrina transforms his vision of water

For years, New Orleans architect David Waggonner focused on designing traditional public buildings like courthouses through his firm, Waggonner & Ball. But Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact in 2005 fundamentally shifted his perspective on how cities should approach water management and flooding.

Before the catastrophic storm, New Orleans—like many American cities—followed a conventional approach of trying to engineer water completely out of sight and out of mind. This strategy of hiding water infrastructure and pushing water away proved disastrously inadequate when Katrina’s floodwaters overwhelmed the city’s defenses, causing widespread destruction and displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.

Recognizing that this traditional approach was fundamentally flawed, Waggonner sought inspiration from the Netherlands, a country renowned for its innovative water management strategies. The Dutch have centuries of experience living below sea level and have developed sophisticated methods for coexisting with water rather than simply fighting against it. As Waggonner puts it, “you can’t live with water if you can’t see water.”

This philosophy represents a paradigm shift from the American tendency to hide water infrastructure underground and behind levees, toward the Dutch model of visible, integrated water systems that work with natural processes. Waggonner’s post-Katrina transformation illustrates how climate disasters can catalyze new approaches to urban resilience, pushing architects and planners to learn from global examples of successful adaptation to water challenges.