After Hurricane Katrina, a New Orleans Architect Turned to the Dutch to Learn to Live With Water

Inside Climate News · last updated December 16, 2025 – 12:01 AM

Before the storm, the city tried to engineer water out of sight. But, David Waggonner says, “you can’t live with water if you can’t see water.”

For years, David Waggonner designed courthouses and other public buildings at his architectural practice, Waggonner & Ball, in New Orleans. Then Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, and Waggonner became convinced that New Orleans was getting something fundamentally wrong about its approach to flooding and water.

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