Tulanians featured in new documentary "Urbanized"

Who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? This question is at the heart of a new, high-profile documentary called Urbanized. Some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders and thinkers are asked to chime in — Tulanians among them.

The new documentary Urbanized about the design of cities includes interviews with adjunct associate professor of architecture Grover Mouton and others from Tulane. (Photo from Urbanized)

Screening in select cities now, Urbanized was directed by award-winning filmmaker Gary Hustwit, whose other design films include Helvetica, about graphic design and typography, and Objectified, about product design. In Urbanized, Hustwit turns his lens toward the design of cities.

“Hustwit is a wonderful filmmaker and he got right to the point with our work and others here in New Orleans,” says Grover Mouton, director of the Tulane Regional Urban Design Center, which provides design services to communities throughout the Gulf South.

In the documentary, Mouton is asked about rebuilding processes in different neighborhoods of New Orleans, post-Katrina. Mouton says he stressed the need for sustainable development and for urban-design recovery plans developed with input from community members.

Hustwit also interviewed Mouton about a Tulane project in Biloxi, Miss., where architecture students have been working with the community to design a public waterfront park called Point Cadet.

“I believe it is extremely important for the students to engage with communities in the implementation of real-world, budgeted projects,” Mouton says.

Community input is vital to the design process, echoes another Tulanian featured in Urbanized. Public installation artist Candy Chang, a Tulane Urban Innovation Fellow, is developing an online platform called “Neighborland” to connect community leaders with neighborhoods. Chang says she was filmed putting stickers up on vacant buildings around New Orleans as part of the “I Wish This Was...” project that led to “Neighborland.”