Brian Ho - Selected Work 2014 by Brian Ho

SELECTED WORK 617.817.2456 ho_brian@me.com 30 Silver Birch Road Waban, MA 02468

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK 617.817.2456 ho_brian@me.com 30 Silver Birch Road Waban, MA 02468

BRIAN HO

SPACES

Eli Whitney Museum

Housing Superblock

Quarry Dwelling

House from Section

Yale A&A Building

OBJECTS

Dominant Void

CITIES

Life with the Vacant Lot

PRACTICE

Alley Pond Environmental Center

St. Bernard Land Use Plan

CONTENTS 3

SPACES 5

Eli Whitney Museum SENIOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO TURNER BROOKS AND ADAM HOPFNER, CRITICS YALE COLLEGE ARCH 450A - FALL 2011

BRIEF Design a 3200 SF teaching facility for the existing Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, CT. The program must include a greenhouse, soil room and exhibition space. In addition, the building should explore both the historical and current relationships between nature and human industry on the site.

RESPONSE Embed a two-level greenhouse and soil room into a landform containing the exhibition space, organizing the tripartite program into two discrete but interwoven components. Orient the entire project around the Lake Whitney Dam to shape access and awareness; use the greenhouse to draw in and radiate out light, creating a signature feature for the museum.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

The area around the Eli Whitney Museum, located at the base of the East Rock ridge, bears a long legacy of human intervention. The existing museum occupies the historic armory, built by Eli Whitney in 1798 to harness the Mill River for manufacturing purposes. The adjacent dam was expanded in 1860 to create the Lake Whitney Reservoir and provide municipal water for New Haven.

Left Site plan 1" = 100'

100 FT

Below Site model, view from south 1” = 20' Chipboard, basswood and acrylic

Eli Whitney Museum

A series of site analyses revealed

suggested a final building location

features that guided the museum's

situated immediately before the

orientation. Studies of the sound

dam. Here, the proposed building

of the dam, physical connections

shapes the experience of the site:

between existing facilities, and the

what is heard, seen and perceived

views available from around the site

during the approach to the building.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above Site analysis diagrams Facing Site model, view from southwest 1" = 20' Basswood, chipboard and acrylic

Eli Whitney Museum

The three distinct spaces of the

the exhibition space and create a

museum are integrated into two

gentle descent through it to the soil

components: an exhibition space

room. Visitors must pass through

wrapped around the greenhouse.

the soil room and its displays

Circulation in the building guides

before reaching the stairs leading

visitors to all spaces in sequence.

up to the greenhouse; from the

After the entrance, a series of steps

greenhouse they can exit, returning

and a split-level walkway divide

to ground level.

Facing First floor plan West elevation Section 1" = 20'

BRIAN HO

20 FT

SELECTED WORK

Eli Whitney Museum

The proposed museum projects out into the Mill River to face the Lake Whitney Dam. The approach to the museum is sheltered by the building and East Rock; the land slopes down to the river and the level of the entrance, exposing the sectional quality of the building itself.

Below Model, oblique view 1/8” = 1’ Basswood, chipboard and acrylic Facing Model, plan view Model, oblique view 1/8” = 1’ Basswood, chipboard and acrylic

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Eli Whitney Museum

The greenhouse, soil room and

Indirect light filters down into the

exhibition spaces are organized

exhibition space through the glass

in section to provide strongly

of the greenhouse, while direct

contrasting interior experiences. The

sun exposure is limited by the

tall greenhouse is brightly lit above,

louvered facade and roof overhang;

but feels more sheltered below.

these features create a darkened

Tall columns of earth rise through

environment ideal for the display of

the structure to function as both

historic artifacts in the Eli Whitney

planter above and soil display below.

Museum's collection.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above Section model, oblique views 3/8” = 1’ Basswood, foamcore, acrylic, plants and soil Next page Interior perspective of the exhibition space and soil room

Eli Whitney Museum

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Eli Whitney Museum

Housing Superblock METHODS & FORM IN ARCHITECTURE II KEITH KRUMWIEDE AND JOYCE HSIANG, CRITICS YALE COLLEGE ARCH 251B - SPRING 2011

BRIEF Design a 48-unit residential complex on a 200’ by 400’ block with a FAR of 1.5. The complex must include multiple unit types to accommodate a variety of possible resident configurations. All units must offer access to open space, whether a private lot or a shared public area.

RESPONSE Cut and peel the ground plane to create a habitable surface that supports public open space above and encloses individual private space below. Shape the man-made topography to create courtyards within the block that provide relief from the surroundings; divide the complex into two sides to allow cross-block circulation.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above Roof plan Second floor plan 1” = 80’ Facing Study models 1” = 100’ Chipboard

80 FT

Initial studies tested geometric

and public space. The final plan

operations – rotating and skewing

configuration provides all 42 units

the plan, as well as cutting and

with interior and exterior entrances.

peeling the ground – as ways

The surface topography ensures that

to achieve desired features: an

no unit looks directly into another,

enclosed courtyard, cross-block

while preserving each unit's access

connection and appropriate private

to open space.

Housing Superblock

VERTICAL CIRCULATION

OPEN SPACE

PRIVATE SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE AND CIRCULATION

STREET FACADE AND PARKING BELOW

The housing superblock contains

These layers require different

stacked layers of program. The open

relationships between the interior

space and vertical circulation form

and the exterior. The superblock

the top and most accessible layer;

features glazed facades, light wells,

layers of more individual space

street walls and public entrances

and private circulation exist below.

that meet those distinct demands.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above Exploded axonometric diagram Facing, clockwise from top left Model, view of glazed facade Model, view of courtyard and light wells Model, view of public entrances 1/8” = 1’ Basswood, acrylic and museum board

Housing Superblock

All units occupy the same 40' by 20' footprint. Varied unit sizes – from individual studios to family homes – are accomplished vertically, as additional interior floors match the rise of the outside ground surface. The orientation of each unit toward the outside suggests a simple plan and sectional organization: bedrooms to the back, and living spaces to the front. Above Perspective from within unit Right Model, cutaway view 1/8" - 1' Facing page Unit second floor plan Unit first floor plan Unit section perspective 3/32" - 1'

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Housing Superblock

8 FT

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

This page Perspective from street

Housing Superblock

Quarry Dwelling SENIOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO TURNER BROOKS AND ADAM HOPFNER, CRITICS YALE COLLEGE ARCH 450A - FALL 2011

BRIEF Design a small refuge within the Stony Creek Quarry in Branford, CT. The structure should foster a secure and intimate relationship between occupant and the site. The assembly and materials of the structure should reflect this negotiation between natural and man-made.

RESPONSE Create a set of stairs descending into a natural crevice in the granite of the quarry. Suspend each wooden stair tread individually on cables attached to metal rods driven into the rockface, floating the occupant in the space. Hang a louvered copper screen at the end of the crevice that encloses the dwelling while allowing daylight and views.

Human activity has strongly defined

rockface overlooking the site. The

the site. The quarrying of large

crevice was imagined to run deep

"benches" of stone has left behind

into the earth with the dwelling

imposing vertical faces that offer no

inside – creating an experience

natural refuge. A more appropriate

of suspension that speaks to a

place for a dwelling was a crevice,

close but precarious relationship

found in the horizontal surface of a

between site and structure.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Top The Stony Creek Quarry Above The crevice and site for the dwelling Facing Model 1/4” = 1’ Foam, basswood, metal, chipboard

Quarry Dwelling

Hidden between walls of rock, the dwelling is visible only from the front. At that end, a louvered copper screen, hung in the same fashion as the stairs, mediates between the outside exposure and the interior intimacy. The copper screen would gradually patina, bridging between the natural and the man-made.

Right Model 1/4” = 1' Foam, basswood, metal, chipboard Facing Model, detail view 1/4” = 1' Foam, basswood, metal, chipboard

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Quarry Dwelling

The copper screen filters daylight

The construction of the dwelling

entering the dwelling, selectively

borrows from the tectonic

illuminating an otherwise dark space.

language of quarrying techniques.

Arriving on the last step of the

Each stair tread is hung from a

stair activates a mechanical pulley

metal rod driven into the rockface,

system, which raises the screen and

echoing how the stone is drilled

projects a platform forward.

and hammered prior to splitting.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above Section drawing Facing Elevation and section drawings

Quarry Dwelling

This page Model 1/4” = 1’ Foam, basswood, metal, chipboard

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Quarry Dwelling

House from Section METHODS & FORM IN ARCHITECTURE I PEGGY DEAMER AND BIMAL MENDIS, CRITICS YALE COLLEGE ARCH 250A - FALL 2010

BRIEF Extrapolate a house from a given building section. The house should reflect an organizational grid present in the drawing. The drawing can be taken literally or more loosely, and various elements can be layered forward and backward into space. No site or program requirements were provided.

RESPONSE Reinterpret the section into a narrow house cantilevered over water. Articulate the structure as a series of offset planes, reflecting the twodimensional nature of the drawing. Emphasize a strong connection to the water with a set of distinct circulation routes running from left to right in the section, or front to back through the house.

The central axis of the home lies

this central axis, creating depth in

along a corridor running from front

and out of the plane of the section

to back, creating a procession

with a sequence of interwoven

through the house that leads from

spaces. The stair, visible as a single

the entrance at street level to

flight in the original drawing, was

the water below the cantilevered

extrapolated to connect spaces on

portion. Additional rooms project off

both the upper and lower levels.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above and facing Model, cutaway views 1/8” = 1’ Museum board and basswood Following Model 1/8” = 1’ Museum board and basswood

House from Section

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

House from Section

The narrow proportion of the house creates compelling long views through the entire building, each framed by a rhythmic mullion system and a sequence of ceiling joists that run continuously through the central space. This page Model 1/8” = 1’ Museum board and basswood

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

House from Section

Yale A&A Building THE ANALYTIC MODEL EMMANUEL PETIT, CRITIC YALE COLLEGE ARCH 249B - SPRING 2010

BRIEF Research, describe and interpret the formal qualities of Paul Rudolph’s Yale Art and Architecture building. Investigate the massing, tectonic, circulation and program concepts of the building; represent the results of the analysis through models and drawings.

RESPONSE Avoid the common “pinwheeling” interpretation of the Yale Art and Architecture building, and study the building as a series of individual floor plates layered around the central double-height spaces. Read the form of the building as a concrete armature that connects the upper floors to the vertical piers, while supporting an open area below for the lower floors.

The massing of the building was

in the model as wood, acrylic and

divided into three categories: the

cardboard, respectively – revealing

central review pits, the stacked

the complex nature of the central

perimeter studios, and the inserted

spaces, in contrast to the more

upper-level classrooms. These

straightforward form of the studios

components parts were articulated

and classrooms.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above Massing analysis model Acrylic, wood and cardboard Left Massing analysis model, components Acrylic, wood and cardboard

The tectonic language of the building was read as a concrete armature and glazed infill. The distinctive corrugated piers and upper Above Tectonic analysis model Plywood, acrylic, metal and cardboard

classrooms become a framework for airy spaces below.

Yale A&A Building

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

The building was analyzed through freehand drawings in addition to Above Perspective drawing with Mari Mobley Uyen Phan Leah Underwood and Chris Perez Facing Diagram drawings Plan drawing Elevation drawing Section drawing

physical models. A series of parti diagrams was developed, expressing ideas about solid-void relationships, hierarchy, order and verticality within the building. Plan, elevation and section drawings were created to develop a comprehensive spatial understanding of the building.

Yale A&A Building

OBJECTS 55

Brief

Dominant Void SENIOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDIO TURNER BROOKS AND ADAM HOPFNER, CRITICS YALE COLLEGE ARCH 450A - FALL 2011

BRIEF Build a structure with 1” by 2” wood furring strips that defines a void more present than the structure itself. As an exercise in space-making, the structure was to be built at full-scale in studio.

RESPONSE In lieu of creating a more typical space frame that outlines space, design a device for viewing space. Use a construction method that requires only triangular frames without supporting edge members; build a prism that is oriented specifically within the studio and meets flush with the window to frame a view of the sky.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

21 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01

B A

The dominant void was designed

the object and its specific site was

as a series of interwoven

built to determine the number

triangular frames, and structured

of components and individual

Above Component pieces

without any edge members.

dimensions. Diagrams, plotted at

The angled orientation added

full-scale, were created to coordinate

Facing Component pieces in frames Perspective diagram

further complexity. A three-

and confirm the actual size of the cut

dimensional digital model of both

furring strips during assembly.

Top Construction of the void

Dominant Void

The prismatic geometry of the void served as a designed viewing device. When looking through the void, the louvered construction of the triangular frames collapsed into an opaque oculus enclosing an unobstructed portion of the sky.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Left View from within the studio Right View from outside the building Facing View through the void

Dominant Void

CITIES 63

Life With the Vacant Lot SENIOR INDEPENDENT THESIS PROJECT KELLER EASTERLING, ADVISOR YALE COLLEGE ARCH 471B - SPRING 2012

BRIEF Research the unique nature of the vacant lot in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Explore both specific response to vacancy in New Orleans as well as historical and theoretical responses. Propose a new system to be employed after disaster that accounts for the vacant lot.

RESPONSE Show the vacant lot as marking the end of one urbanism and the beginning of another. Research the funding and planning efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; analyze the contradiction between urban planning and urban resilience. Demonstrate that cities need a more egalitarian, flexible and procedural approach to urban form to resist catastrophe.

Hurricane Katrina was for New Orleans an immediate crisis (fig. 1) compounded by a set of long-standing problems: a dynamic environment, reckless geographic expansion, industrial decline and government mismanagement. In the wake of the storm, vacancy — distributed as 40,000 discrete vacant lots — became an expression of those failures (fig. 9). Urban planners and architects responded by treating vacancy as both disease and symptom. In prescribing these remedies, they followed historical and theoretical precedents about the nature of cities. These ideas equated vacancy with blight and perceived disaster as opportunity: a chance to re-envision and reconstruct New Orleans from a tabula rasa. New Orleans, however, returned after Hurricane Katrina not as a cohesive city but a scattershot metropolis. The vacant lots remained, incorporated and normalized within the city. In some cases, the lots merged with their neighbors to create vibrant new typologies (fig. 3 and 4); in other cases, they decayed into ruin (fig. 2); in yet other cases, they sat empty and neatly mowed (fig. 5). The result of individual initiative as much as authoritarian planning, this pockmarked urban fabric defies convention. Other research has already examined this particular urban paradox. Interboro Partners identified “blots,”a portmanteau of block and lot

Facing, counter-clockwise from top Flooding after Hurricane Katrina Damage in the Lower 9th Ward Make it Right home Growing Home lot conversion Vacant lots in the Lower 9th Ward

describing the purchase, rental or otherwise use of an adjacent vacant lot, as an indicator of a “New Suburbanism” in Detroit.1 An “unplanned,

Daniel D’Oca, and Georgeen Theodore Tobi-

unacknowledged, and yet entirely plausible response” to Detroit’s economic

as Armborst, Improve Your Lot!, 2006. Web.

disaster, blots also apply to New Orleans. Margaret Crawford’s study of

Everyday Urbanism — “sanctioned yet unofficial, highly visible but hidden” — serves as a precedent for considering the informal life around vacant lots.2 Rem Koolhaas has also defined the contradiction between how cities are perceived and how they live, describing “the city’s defiant persistence and apparent vigor, in spite of the collective failure of all agencies that act on it.”3

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Chase, John, Margaret Crawford, and John

Kaliski. Everyday Urbanism. New York, NY: Monacelli, 1999. Print. 3 Koolhaas, Rem, Bruce Mau, Jennifer Sigler, Hans Werlemann, and Office for Metropolitan Architecture. S, M, L, XL: Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large. New York: Monacelli Press, 1998. Print.

FIG. 1

FIG. 2

FIG.3

FIG.5

FIG.4

Life With the Vacant Lot

FIG. 6

FIG. 7

FIG. 8

This theme of contradiction suggests a different approach is needed post-disaster: one that recognizes both the need for and the haphazard nature of improvement; one that does not deem vacancy incompatible with recovery. Borrowing from specific aspects of the responses tried in New Orleans, I have attempted to outline such an approach as a new program for the creation of resilient cities. This program is simulated as a game, inspired by Keller Easterling's subtraction game. Subtraction, in that reading, takes on significance equivalent to addition.4 Instead of incentivizing the act of de-construction, however, this game promotes adaption to a state of subtraction. The game plays on a board, a five-by five grid, representing the city after disaster and inspired by the historical layout of New Orleans (fig. 6). The grid is bordered on two of its outer edges by water. Each space on the grid represent a lot, half of which are populated. The first step of the game is a summary of broad goals, from the perspective of a planner. Although such goals are often ignorant of the opinions of a city’s inhabitants, this approach admits they are also often founded on a basic truth. The urban plans created for New Orleans focused

Above, left-to-right Map of New Orleans, 1703 Christopher Wren's London plan, 1666 Daniel Burnham's San Francisco plan, 1905

on the relationship between the city and the water; they hoped to reduce the future flooding by “shrinking the footprint” and moving to higher ground. The game embeds such goals within the board by grading each of

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Easterling, Keller. Subtraction. Holcim Foun-

dation: Green Workshop, 15 Apr. 2010. Web.

$60,000

$120 billion

AVERAGE HAZARD MITIGATION GRANT

FEDERAL SPENDING

$45 billion REBUILDING

ANNUAL MAINTENANCE COST

$8.9 billion ROAD HOME PROGRAM ROAD HOME GRANTS

130,000

$9 million

LOUISIANA LAND TRUST

1. Stay 2. Move 3. Leave state

GRANTS GIVEN

48,860

$5,000 LOT NEXT DOOR

AVERAGE VACANT LOT PRICE

VACANT LOTS IN NEW ORLEANS

$65,000 BLIGHT STAT DEMOLITION

AVERAGE BUILT LOT PRICE

$68,000 AVERAGE GRANT

FIG. 9

the twenty-five lots on a series of scales (fig. 11- 13). In New Orleans, these scales might focus on hazard mitigation potential (corresponding to a lot’s elevation), contextual density (number of neighbors) and urban planning value (position with respect to an idealized form of the city). Using these grades, the game of recovery operates on a mechanism designed to avoid conflict between the plan for a city and the residents of a city. Change is neither required nor prescribed, only encouraged. Similar to the grant structure of the existing Road Home and Hazard Mitigation programs, varying amounts of reconstruction funds are awarded to residents based on their decisions (fig. 9). Homeowners can choose to move to any other lot on the grid. Grants are commensurate with the graded value of the lot in question: e.g. the better the elevation of a property, the higher the grant for moving there. Alternatively, homeowners would pay a fee to move to a lot they individually desire and is not preferred in a particular grading scheme. With multiple goals in play, the homeowner can freely balance the gains under one against the losses under another (fig. 14-19). Above Diagram of disaster relief funding after Hurricane Katrina Following Map of vacant lots in the Bywater and Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans

This system allows for both regulation and freedom. Furthermore, the association of incentives with prospective value of a lot avoids the problematic method of tying relief to pre-disaster values, which is susceptible to existing biases. By empowering homeowners to make their

Life With the Vacant Lot

FIG.10

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Life With the Vacant Lot

own decisions, the game allows for informal urbanism around vacant lots. The last component of this game builds upon the existing Lot Next Door program. Purchases of a neighboring vacant lot are, as in the realworld, incentivized by lower “fair-value” prices. In this game, however, those prices would also reflect the grades for the lot itself; empty space carries as much value as occupied space. As a system of individual decision making, this game of recovery operates similar to John Conway’s game of Life.5 In Conway’s mathematical game, a grid of cells oscillates between binary states — black and white, or “live” and “dead” — depending contextually on the state of their neighbors. The rules are simple, but the results are anything but. Various starting configuration produce patterns that grow indefinitely, disappear completely, or occupy steady states. Conway’s game of Life is a zero-player simulation of organic structure that achieves order without active input. In the same way, the game of recovery melds the organization of a city plan with the individual motivations of residents. There are, of course, complexities missing from the game: infrastructure, transportation, and land use. Future exploration might expand the scope of the game and inform its rules. The core concept also suggests applicability to cities facing other kinds of disasters. Could economic vacancy in Detroit or Cleveland be addressed with similar methods? Ultimately, this games of recovery asks if the vacant lot can play an active and additive role for its surrounding community. The vacant lot in New Orleans is a conflict of urbanisms: an urbanism that relates to the life of people, and an urbanism dictated by the aspirations of architects and urban planners. New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how determined people can be to live in their place. The game of recovery attempts to account for this resolve — to understand life with the vacant lot.

Facing Three grading scales for lots Example sequence of lot purchase and transfer

5 Gardner, Martin. “Mathematical games: The fantastic combinations of John Conway’s new solitaire game “life”.” Scientific American. 223.4 (1970): 120-123. Web.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Yes

$20,000

$10,000

2-3

4-5

$20,000 $10,000 $5,000

$20,000 $15,000 $10,000 $1,000

FIG. 11

FIG. 12

FIG. 13

FIG. 14

FIG. 15

FIG. 16

FIG. 17

FIG. 18

FIG. 19

Life With the Vacant Lot

PRACTICE 75

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

ALLEY POND ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER LEROY STREET STUDIO SHAWN WATTS AND LESLI STINGER, TEAM MEMBERS 2012 - 2014

BRIEF Design a 10,000 SF educational facility for the Alley Pond Environmental Center, under the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, in Douglaston, NY. The building should provide more formal teaching, office and support spaces for the organization, which serves 40,000 schoolchildren annually.

RESPONSE Create a building with two sides: a north brick wall that screens traffic along the adjacent highway, and a south curtain wall that opens to the park and views. Employ an angled metal roof that emphasizes both sides of the building, while also providing sun-shading and rainwater collection. Project won a 2013 Public Design Commission Award and aims for LEED Gold.

20 FT

The design of the north and south

the building but shield occupants

elevations reflect distinct goals. The

from noise. The south side faces

north side faces the highway and the

Alley Pond Park; a curtain wall

parking lot; a wall of iridescent green

of clear and diffuse glass brings

glazed brick, a small clerestory and

light and views into the classroom

punched openings call attention to

spaces behind.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Above North elevation South elevation 1” = 20’ Right Site plan 1” = 250’

125

250 FT

Alley Pond Environmental Center 79

As a member of a two-person

such as controlled daylighting,

project team, with one managing

rainwater harvesting, a ground-

partner, I participated in building

source HVAC system, and an

development from concept to

appropriate envelope. I led the

construction drawings. Significant

LEED certification process for the

effort went into sustainable features,

design phase, targeting LEED Gold.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Top Rainwater, daylighting and passive ventilation diagram with Manuel Cordero and Halina Steiner Above Sketch exploring sustainable features Facing Detail section, north and south walls 1” = 1’

9 IN

Alley Pond Environmental Center 81

This page Perspective, looking north with Manuel Cordero, Halina Steiner and Karyssa Halsted Next page Perspective, classroom interior

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Alley Pond Environmental Center 83

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

Alley Pond Environmental Center 85

St. Bernard Land Use Plan WAGGONNER & BALL ARCHITECTS DAVID WAGGONNER, ARON CHANG AND RAMI DIAZ SUMMER 2011

BRIEF Develop a land use plan for St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, for the 2000 vacant lots left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With ownership transferred from the state Louisiana Land Trust to the municipality, the vacant lots should be affordably used to provide value and service.

RESPONSE Research existing demands within St. Bernard Parish for tree cover, infrastructure, flood mitigation, parks and diversified zoning. Treat the vacant lots as an opportunity to restore the urban structure of the parish; attempt to package and consolidate vacant lots for both future redevelopment and land banking.

Support the wetland restoration.

Invest in canals as a community resource.

St. Bernard depends on the surrounding levee system to prevent flooding, but the wetlands serve as a second line of defense. Current plans to restore the Central Wetlands Unit through freshwater diversions, the MR-GO closure and the pumping of treated wastewater should be supported during redevelopment.

The parish’s canals are more than a drainage system: they are spaces with great potential for local neighborhoods. Better landscaping and maintence can convert now-overlooked waterways into ideal locations for parks. Although houses currently face away from canals and towards the streets, investing in canal improvements might create prized waterfront properties throughout St. Bernard.

WATER MANAG

Using canals, parks and other features, St. Bernard Parish can promote an understanding and appreciation of the wetlands and the water system around the parish.

St. Bernard Parish’s dra underutilized asset. Hou from the waterfront and street of water are frequ The canals themselves maintained and landsca ingly clogged with invas species.

Despite an extensive ne levees and pump station Parish still suffers from during heavy rainfall. An Army Corp of Engineer’ cane Risk Reduction Sy risk of storm surge and ing remains.

St. Bernard Parish has a ine its relationship to th through it. Can vacant lo parish be used to build and other stormwater m tures that beautify surro hoods, serve as recreat effectively manage wate

Consider soil conditions and subsidence when rebuilding. As part of the alluvial plain of the Mississippi River, St. Bernard Parish largely sits on natural levees and is above sea level. Newer developments atop drained wetlands, however, are closer or below sea level. Both the continuing subsidence of the ground and the quality of the soil itself must be analyzed. Ideally, the parish will focus redevelopment in areas with stable soil at higher elevations.

2006 American Forests Louisiana Gulf C

Map of soil types.

Map of subsidence rates.

Reduce runoff with on-site water management. Rainwater drains through sewers or runs along the ground to outfall canals, flowing away from the river toward the Forty Arpent Canal. Pump stations send this water across the levee and into the Central Wetlands Unit. Heavy rains, however, stress the pumping capacity of the system. Sewers then overflow, leading to street flooding. Any reduction in the runoff of rainwater will improve drainage. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways: water can be temporarily stored, or removed into the ground and air through evaporation and infiltration.

Asphalt, concrete and other non-permeable surfaces increase runoff and worsen the drainage problem.

The mix of concrete slabs and grass on vacant lots allow more drainage into the ground and are better.

Trees and other water management devices that infiltrate, evaporate and collect rainwater are best.

1,250 2,500

5,000

7,500

Arabi in 2010

Designate more green spaces for parks and playgrounds.

Plant more street trees.

After Hurricane Katrina, the parish added several new and improved recreational centers with sports fields and gyms. But few, if any, facilities for passive recreation have been built. Indeed, in most areas outside of Arabi there are no public green spaces within walking distance of most neighborhoods.

Although the parish has large areas of forested land, the majority of its developed land bears little to no tree cover. Most neighborhoods are barren pockets in the middle of heavily overgrown patches; most major roads have sparsely planted neutral grounds and sidewalks. Vacant lots created by Hurricane Katrina have only exacerbated the issue.

PARKS and TRE

Every house in the parish deserves a park or playground within a quarter mile. In an urban environment, tree cover can best be restored through the planting of street trees.

tree loss post-Katrina: 2

Tree Cover Wetland Low Intensity Developed Medium Intensity Developed High Intensity Developed

if trees were replanted to 1 million lbs of pollutant 400,000 tons of carbon $2.5 million estimated v A lack of street trees: neighborhoods feel empty, less desirable and more exposed.

St. Bernard Parish lost n its trees in Hurricane Ka streets and neighborhoo more exposed. The lack ened air quality, already by nearby industrial faci

Arabi in 2005

While St. Bernard Parish sports fields, it has relat residents to relax, sit or Children sometimes hav four-lane roads to reach grounds.

2006 NOAA Coastal Change Analysis

Can we create a system spaces that add trees an benefit of local neighbor community and the grea

Ample street trees: neighborhood aesthetics, environment and property values are improved.

2006 American Forests Louisiana Gulf Coas

Use trees to benefit the parish. In addition to improving neighborhood aesthetics, trees reduce cooling and heating costs for nearby houses by shielding them from the sun and gusts of wind. Evaporation of water helps reduce the ambient air temperature; shading decreases the temperature of asphalt and lowers maintenance costs.

1/4 and 1/2 mile walking radius.

School Park

Trees help to manage stormwater by evaporating water into the air or infiltrating it into the ground, reducing the amount of runoff in the drainage system during heavy rainfall.

72.9% of park space is for athletics

27.1% is for recreation

St. Bernard has many sports fields ...

... but relatively few playgrounds and parks.

Trees improve air quality through absorption and storage of carbon dioxide, and production of oxygen. Trees also remove airborne industrial pollutants like nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone.

0.452 acres

4.03 acres

6.34 acres

61.7 acres

3.08 acres

25.0 acres

Squares represent the type, number and average size of facilities. Sports fields, parks and playgrounds in public schools are included; St. Bernard State Park is not included.

BRIAN HO

SELECTED WORK

1,250 2,500

5,000

7,500

Facing Water management analysis Parks and open space analysis Left Land use concept plan

Initial research considered the existing condition of St. Bernard Parish in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Separate analyses were conducted into the stormwater management system as well as the amount of tree coverage and public park space. The results of this investigation were then incorporated into conceptual land use plans, which attempted to focus development into particular zones.

St. Bernard Land Use Plan