Thesis Document_Community Collage

To What Extent Can Architecture Enable a Community?

Through a Lens of Social Reformation, Communitarianism, and the Mitigation of Gentrification,

05.05.10

Karla E. Valdivia

DSGN 611_Thesis Research

Thesis Advisors_ Prof. Elizabeth Gamard Prof. Jonathan Tate Thesis Professor_Prof. Tiffany Lin

T H E S I S_T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

THESIS_STATEMENT

2

THESIS_ABSTRACT

3-10

SITE_INFORMATION

11-19

DESIGN_PROCESS

20 - 26

ANNOTATED_BIBLIOGRAPHY

27-35

ANNOTATED_CASE STUDIES

36-46

THESIS _ STATEMENT

The present typology of architecture in New Orleans must enable a community and launch a communitarian network if it hopes to successfully re-build while mitigating the effects of gentrification. However, this is a task that is complicated by extensive poverty, lack of home ownership, abandoned properties, few community resources and, mainly, Hurricane Katrina. In order to accomplish this, it must take hold of a communitarian ideal in which place making is achieved through the re-development of a neighborhood and the re-establishment of community and culture. Yet how can an architecture re-establish these sensibilities while the enactors of culture are widely dispersed? The present typology of architecture in New Orleans must enable a community and launch a communitarian network if it hopes to successfully re-build while reducing the effects of gentrification.

THESIS_ABSTRACT

There are a number of issues that establish a framework contributing to the distress of a city. These are included, but not limited to extensive poverty, lack of home ownership, blighted properties, few community resources and ‘outmigration ’ defined by Clarke as “white middle-class flight from central city neighborhoods…in search of community and status during the social upheaval of urban restructuring.” 1 While these factors are numerous and integral, it is gentrification that acts as the urban strategy inflicting much social distress upon central city areas. These distresses are further intensified due to the lack of place making as well as a city’s inability to provide urban space in which enables a community’s sense of identity.

GENTRIFICATION_AN OVERVIEW The term gentrification was first coined in 1964 by sociologist Ruth Glass and defined as the “transformation of a working-class or vacant area of the central city into middle-class residential and/or commercial use… and is identified as a complex urban process that included the rehabilitation of old housing stock, tenurial transformation from renting to owning, property price increases, and the displacement of working-class residents by the incoming middle-classes.”

2

Gentrification is a process in which once initiated within a district would rapidly persist until

most or all of the original working-class occupiers were displaced and the whole social character of the district was changed. 3

1

Paul W. Clarke. “The Ideal of Community and Its Counterfeit Construction.” Journal of Architectural Education. (2005) 45.

2

Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly. Gentrification. (New York: Routledge, 2007), 5.

3

Neil Smith, New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Urban Strategy . (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002) 438.

Initially, gentrification was viewed positively as it was a “renaissance” or a “revitalization” of the inner-city and a natural outcome as wealthier households began to find accessibility to central city areas and property affordability more attractive. As a result of this ‘inmigration’ of the middle-class into downtown areas, market values rose as did rents, making affordable housing almost nonexistent. However, issues of poverty, homelessness and displacement were often unaddressed. Contemporary gentrification encompasses much more than a residential rehabilitation project and involves governmental, corporate, or corporate-governmental partnerships as the primary agents of this urban regeneration. As the scale and diversity of gentrification has evolved into a sociological and urban theoretical issue, “The current language of urban regeneration is not one-dimensional, but it bespeaks, among other things, a generalization of gentrification in the urban landscape… and is an ongoing transformation into a significant dimension of contemporary urbanism.” 4 While positives of gentrification include the stabilization of distressed areas, increased property values, reduced vacancy rates, increased local fiscal revenues, encouragement and increased viability of further development, and rehabilitation of properties and reduction of suburb sprawl, there is larger list of negative results to this socially driven urban process.

Gentrification renders an increase of rent and property values as well as a loss of affordable housing. As a result, it becomes a vehicle for displacement. Displacement lends itself to psychological costs, community resentment and conflict, homelessness, under-occupancy, population loss to the gentrified areas as well as a lack of social diversity. Smith argues that addressing gentrification as a form of regeneration falsifies the intentions at hand and in reality, those involved in the gentrification process should be concerned with shifting class relations. 5

4

Neil Smith, New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Urban Strategy . (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002) 439.

5

Neil Smith, New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Urban Strategy . (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002) 445.

NEW URBANISM_GENTRIFICATION IN DISGUISE The urban strategy of gentrification is activated as means of city regeneration or revitalization and can also be understood through the lens of New Urbanism. The principles of New Urbanism attempt to establish a sense of identity through community by means of compact, small scale, mixed use, pedestrian friendly neighborhoods. In New Urbanism, the central locations of neighborhoods are designed to act as town centers and often allocated for the design of civic buildings, schools, churches, and/or local government. Clarke explains, “the aspirations for change that motivate New Urbanism are positives as well as nostalgic. Its acolytes embrace tradition, collective memory, and a sense of place, all in passionate pursuit of a sense of belonging and identity.” 6 While the intended principles challenge urban sprawl and address the city as a catalyst of sociability, New Urbanism as an urban strategy works as a means for gentrification as it alters space under the umbrella of community offering amenities and secular fulfillment afforded by a particular income bracket and class.

HURRICANE KATRINA_VEHICLE FOR GENTRIFICATION Accompanied by pervasive poverty, extensive devastation and differing principles of redevelopment, Hurricane Katrina has become the very vehicle of gentrification within the city of New Orleans. Albeit a horrific tragedy, the city’s architectural and design responses following the effects of Katrina offer a perfect case study for the gentrification of a distressed city. Katrina also amplified the issues of racial segregation, structural impoverishment and the urban disinvestment of New Orleans. Herscher elaborates that: New Orleans’ most impoverished citizens were concentrated in neighborhoods cut off from economic development, educational opportunity, and social entitlement, neoliberal urban disinvestment led the infrastructure protecting these neighborhoods to be under serviced and neglected. 7

6

Paul Clarke, "The Ideal of Community and Its Counterfeit Construction." Journal of Architectural Education (2005): 43.

7

Andrew Herscher, “American Urbicide,” Journal of Architectural Education (2006): 19.

Due to the extreme flooding, many of the aforementioned residents were displaced resulting in much of the post-Katrina re-development planning to serve as an urban strategy of gentrification.

The initial plan of attack on the city re-build after the hurricane was to organize New Orleans into four zones each following the flood maps: immediate rebuilding, targeted for new development, building moratorium and new parks addressing issues of drainage. Many of the areas targeted for new development and park development were highly concentrated African American neighborhoods with lesser economic means resulting in the potential permanent displacement of these residents and, therefore, an increased racial segregation. Yet, shouldn’t the “right of return” be granted to all of New Orleans’ residents? Allen argues that “the city is now whiter and wealthier than it once was. Entire communities such as the Lower 9 t h Ward and Gentilly, each contributing significant local practices and cultures to the city’s gumbo, are noticeably absent.” 8 Many of the sites intended for re-development were done so under the ideals of New Urbanism, such as the sites obtained by HOPE IV in the Irish Channel and Andres Duany in the Bywater. As New Orleans begins its gradual re-development, we need to ask ourselves, who is the re-building intended for and how can a sense of community and culture thrive if its residents are dispersed or in most cases displaced?

R E – D E V E L O P M E N T _ C I T Y. C U L T U R E. I D E N T I T Y The focus on much of the development throughout these devastated areas is placed on housing, such as with URBANbuild and Make it Right. However, the formation of a neighborhood and the creation of community have been overlooked. Each of these is difficult to achieve without the return of the primary enactors of culture and the basic understanding of this particular principle. For example, as Kahera asserts: What does it mean to live day to day in a community? Since meaning is dependent on context, visual expressions of land use and the way it is read by the public are deeply embedded in the identity of a community. Identity is not merely the drawing of boundary lines; identity is based on the human realm…The failure of architecture and urbanism to 8

Barbara Allen, "New Orleans and Katrina: One Year later." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 5.

respond to the human realm and everyday life can result in the displacement and disorientation of people. 9 This sense of identity is associated with the attachment and distinction of place, which can be described as a collection of behaviors and practices that lend themselves to a public culture. As much of New Orleans is in need of re-development, both physically and sensually, it becomes important that this sense of place be considered throughout architectural implementation. As urban design and architectural form do not solely constitute social reformation, therein lies an opportunity for these fields at hand to adapt as a means to service the community and society through the practice of participatory design and the mending of the urban fabric all while mitigating gentrification and New Urbanist ideals.

R E–DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CASE STUDY The city of New Orleans can turn to other re-building projects as relevant examples. For instance, Israel’s Project Renewal, flourishing between 1977-1984, upheld the principles of reducing social disparity between the differing income classes and eliminating the effects of gentrification as efforts were placed on the rehabilitation of a number of residential neighborhoods. While abroad, Israel’s renewal compares extensively with many American city redevelopment plans as it holds a large concentration of poor families encompassing neighborhoods with little cultural cohesiveness, integration within the community, as well as serious city decline. “They found that the positive social features of old neighborhoods, such as extended families and religious congregations, disappeared when residents were relocated; and the destruction of those traditional institutions and support networks aggravated existing social problems.” 10 Through the selection of entire neighborhoods, rather than individual households, all within that area were eligible for help and rehabilitation. This allowed for equal opportunity and alleviated the tendency for affluent residents to leave these poorer areas as they now had an incentive to remain. There was also an effort to provide residents with involvement in the 9

Akel I. Kahera, "To Live or Die in New Orleans." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 21.

10

Naomi Carmon and Morris Hill, "Neighborhood Rehabilitation Without Relocation or Gentrification." Journal of the American Planning Association 54, no. 4 (1988): 475.

planning and implementation process through discussion, volunteer work and job opportunities for paraprofessionals within the community. The provided funding for the Project Renewal enabled improvements to the neighborhoods for example, by means of do-it-yourself home improvements, expansion of apartments to the average square footages within the city, as well as socially implemented programs available to the children and adults. Specifically, “nearly half of the funding was invested in housing, physical infrastructure, and environment improvements; the rest went for social services: 20 percent for construction and renovation of public buildings for the services and 30 percent for operating them.” 11 While Israel’s Project Renewal may not have taken care of all the problems the many neighborhoods possessed, there was a significant impact to the living conditions along with an improvement in education and cultural and community services.

The principles upheld during the rehabilitation of Israel’s neighborhoods coincide with the ideals of positive community re-development as there was an emphasis placed on mitigating gentrification, a focus placed on providing services for the residents of the community with their involvement in the process and a concern placed on the sociability of the community and culture.

Through this case study, it becomes apparent that one can begin to address the issues of positive community growth through architecture by establishing an approach on re-development whereby the focus is placed on participatory design through the practice of communtariansim. The built urban form must then explore what is means to participate in a community as human activity informs the organization of human space. Kahera asks, “Can we [architects] establish a ‘counterspace,’ an edifice and a master plan endowed directly or indirectly with a set of cultural values?” 12 As opposed to the preliminary zoning plans which eliminate the “right of return” for all previous residents of New Orleans, the architecture of re-development must initially establish a means to bring residents home, as a community can no longer physically exist while those that make up the culture are widely dispersed. As Makker so eloquently asks, “what happens to a culture of scattered people?” 13 11

Naomi Carmon and Morris Hill, "Neighborhood Rehabilitation Without Relocation or Gentrification." Journal of the American Planning Association 54, no. 4 (1988): 475.

12 Akel I. Kahera, "To Live or Die in New Orleans." Journal of Architectural Education 60, no. 1 (2006): 22.

13

Kirin J Makker, "The Gift of Poetry En Route." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 25.

RE–THINKING NEW ORLEANS_THE BUILT FORM The flooding following Hurricane Katrina has revealed New Orleans, once viewed as relatively flat, as a city with an urban terrain possessing topographic characteristics. New Orleans’ sectional quality becomes apparent each time it rains lending to a relevant question asked by Berman, “if the topographic landscape of New Orleans is so critical, why are we still so insistent on thinking through the horizontal plan, rather than in section, and the individual lot, rather than the interconnected landscape?” 14 As New Orleans is mainly a one to two-story residential terrain, its urban texture is described by Berman as a “phenomenon, perhaps not unlike the ground cover of its surrounding bayous and swamps, that emerges from the ground up and then spreads laterally across the surface,” 15 lending itself to relatively horizontal city.

As New Orleans confronts the need for rehabilitation and the altering ecology, the resulting built form must react to this context of a changing landscape and respond to the physical environment in order to render itself adaptive to a community. Ila Berman reminds us that “the past devastation and future rebuilding of the city of New Orleans are inextricably bound to its identity as a watercity-to the region’s deep environmental history, and the specific conditions of the city’s emergence from its surrounding fluid and mutable terrain.” 16 It becomes important now to re-evaluate the past architectural practices of the city which were blind to environmental vulnerability and begin to implement and evolve an architecture that is based on urban sustainability, density, diversity, and connectivity into a post-Katrina New Orleans. 17 The new architectural typology must also embrace section and emerge into a vertical city surrounded by a series of social spaces. The re-development should establish a series of interconnected networks that link the city and spaces together as an inter-woven urban fabric each responding to eachother as well as the changing topography, environment and program. This new typology, most importantly, must posses new building principles all while remaining focused on a socially responsible ideal that works to re-establish the community network while alleviating the social

14

Ila Berman Ila Berman 16 Ila Berman 17 Ila Berman 15

and Mona and Mona and Mona and Mona

Khalif, Khalif, Khalif, Khalif,

URBANbuild: Local, Global . (Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008): 13.

URBANbuild: Local, Global . (Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008): 13.

URBANbuild: Local, Global . (Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008): 11.

URBANbuild: Local, Global . (Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008): 39.

costs of gentrification in order to lend itself as a successful means to enable a community and a city through built form.

COMMUNITY COLLAGE:

The Contextualization of the Current Re-development Efforts in Central City, New Orleans

DESIGN PROCESS

11

How can contemporary design in New Orleans establish a catalyst that sponsors social interaction and re-establishes the sensibilities of community while the enactors of a culture are widely dispersed? The new typology must begin to architecturally explore section while emerging into a social consciousness. This re-development should establish a series of interconnected networks that link the city and spaces together as an inter-woven urban fabric, each responding to eachother as well as the changing topography, environment and program. This contemporary typology, most importantly, must posses new building principles that embrace section while remaining focused on a socially responsible ideal that works to re-establish the community network while alleviating the social costs of gentrification in order to lend itself as a positive means of enabling a community and a city through built form.

Sain t Ch

arle

s Av

Sim o

n Bo

enu e

liva r Av

Claib

enu e

orne Av

enu e

S. B ro

ad S

tree t

This proposal, concentrated in the heart of Central City, New Orleans, explores a way of developing a connection to the historic fabric while explicating the contemporary goals of re-development. Through programmatic and socially driven elements, it will work as both a physical and geographical stitch within the neighborhood and community. Many of the interventions evoke a common response as being alien as they are seen and experienced solely from the exterior allowing for little to no understanding of the spatial qualities, form and tectonics the contemporary typology offers. The proposal is in critical dialogue with these interventions as it adopts from the achitectonics of these projects yet renders itself comprehensible by engaging the public as a whole through program and culture. As the current contemporary interventions in this area act as isolated, dispersed nodes, the proposed Community Block must work as the anchor that will didactically allow for the experiential.

Calio p

e

Felic ity

iana

Louis

12

SITE INFORMATION The site is located in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is bordered by 7 TH and 6 TH street and lies between Saratoga and Loyola. It is situated between highly accessible transit routes and is blocks away from Washington, Louisiana and Simon Bolivar Ave as well as St. Charles Ave, all of which provide easy access for pedestrians and vehicles. Two of its edges are bordered by large cemeteries resulting in crime stricken corners. The site encompasses an entire city block, roughly 70,000 square feet, allowing for a large intervention to engage the neighborhood and community as a whole.

This site was chosen as it is a large vacant area in need of development and occupies a portion of Central City that has little to no engagement. As a vacant lot, providing an intervention will alleviate any displacement of the residents helping to mitigate gentrification. It is also in proximity to previous contempoaray housing interventions, URBANbuild 02, 03 and 04, enabling the site to establish a connection with the present typology of the area. The site is intended to act as a joint of connection for the community as well as the existing urban fabric.

C E N T R A L C I T Y _ N E W O R L E A N S, L A

13

S I T E I N F O R M A T I O N_M A I N S T R E E T A C C E S S T O S I T E The image to the left shows the site in relation to main streets allowing for one to understand the accessibility of the block. One can also begin to understand that density of Central City as well as the bordering conditions of the site. The site is bound by two housing blocks, each with vacancies and suffering from abandonment. The street views express the need for development on all four corners as well as the lack of interaction and integration the site possesses. The views also help to give a sense of the site’s size. .

VIEW FROM 7TH DOWN LOYOLA

VIEW FROM 6TH DOWN LOYOLA

VIEW FROM LOYOLA DOWN 6TH STREET

VIEW FROM LOYOLA DOWN 7TH STREET

VIEW FROM SARATOGA DOWN 6TH STREET

VIEW FROM 6TH STREET DOWN SARATOGA

VIEW FROM SARATOGA DOWN 7TH STREET

VIEW FROM 7TH DOWN SARATOGA

14

S I T E I N F O R M A T I O N_P R O P E R T Y C O N D I T I O N S

Images from URBANbuild: Local, Global

342 3 342 1

241 2

2411 240 5 342 9

2400

2401 3001

2701

2801

3504 233 7

3500

233 9

262 6

262 2

260 8

2630

2614

261 8

271 0

271 8

271 4

270 0

261 7

270 5

270 9

270 1

271 3

2614

221 6

271 8

261 5

271 7

272 1

261 9

261 7

210 0

261 3

260 9

261 3

261 7

261 9

261 2

260 9

261 3

261 7

270 9

270 1

270 5

260 6

262 5

263 3

2011

272 7

272 3

271 5

273 3

1826

1734 2618

1726

1717 1728

1722

1721

1720 1716

2601

2617 2611

2623

1629 260 6

1621 1616

2631

261 0

1630

163 2

1634

1713

FO URTH ST

2707

2701

272 7

272 1

1714

2629

1715

273 1

281 7

2805

1719 1623

282 0

260 9

261 3

261 7

262 3

262 7

270 3

270 9

271 5

271 2

1729 1727

1624

1623

1618

1617

160 2

1604

261 7

0

262 5

2825

272 1

1620

272 7

2855 2919

1824

1736 2628

1731

1726

280 1

2833

260 8

261 2

271 0

270 0 1826

1827 1825 1828 1817

2612

1732

1736

271 6

281 6

281 8

283 2

283 0

2826

282 7

284 1

2837 283 3

1635

1628

1608

1833

BARONNE ST 1735

1804 2824

1629 1634

272 1

1813

2733 272 7 272 3

1808

1723

1631

1618

1839

1716

284 7

285 7

2855 2851

290 1

290 5

291 3

290 9

291 7

1637

271 3

281 5

282 3 282 1 281 7

282 7 282 5 282 3 281 9 281 7 281 3

283 5

284 3

285 7

285 0

285 6

284 6

283 8

284 2

290 0

290 4

291 0

291 4

1721

1909 1905 2706 2704

1816 1812

1812

1613

3029

272 0

1819

1717

1716

1626

3101

271 5

210 1

282 2

282 6

283 5

282 7

282 4 282 0 281 6 281 4

2810

280 9

1632

1912

1901

1720

1709

1920 1916

1925

1901

1822

1627

1619

270 4

272 6

2828

282 1

283 3

282 9

282 7

283 7

281 9

281 5 280 7

285 5

284 9

284 5 284 1

284 0

283 6 283 0

284 5 284 1

2853

285 6 285 2 284 8 284 4 284 2 283 8

6TH S T

2834

1821

285 1

292 9

1905

1921

1720

1715

2618

1933

1921 1917

DRYADES ST

1725

1719

292 9

301 5

301 8

1636 301 6

1633 1631

301 2

310 0

1637

0

0

3201

1629

ST

1723

1937

1929

1913

1909

1908

1800

1727

2024

1928 270827022700 1926 1936 1922

1919

1912

2801

1631 162 0

1927

1923

CARONDELET ST 1635

0

2714

2711

1933 1929

2831

2901

2025 2036 2019 2032 2015 2028 2020

2012

1733

SE VE NTH ST

1714 1706

271 6

281 4

281 6

282 0

283 0

282 4

284 0

283 2

303 9

291 8 291 2

291 8

293 2 292 8 292 2 182 5

1826 1816 1824 1820

291 7

183 2

2910 1836 1832 1828

2916

1804

2023

2029

2024

2732

1938

1916

C O NE RY ST

3309

3305

TO LE D A N O

1622

1636

331 4

3308

1625 1619

332 1

2839 2831

1917

283 9

3011

293 1

301 9 301 6

302 2

303 4

303 0

3100

E IG H T H S T

3105 3103

1724

1709

302 5

3303

1716

1732 1728

1720 1718

1700 1641

1828

2000

2618

2032 2028

2016

1920 1916

1936 1930

2901

1913

1810 1821 1800 1819

3015 3017

1713

170 5

3200

3206

3204

1720

2029

1920

1913

292 1

3201

3205

3209

3217 3212

3220 1719

1714

0 331 3

3319

1819 1817 1811 1809 1803 1801

2108

1926

1812

1726 172 0 1718

1719 1713

3331

1925

1916

1812

1816

2114

2109

2020 2037

2036

2033

2020

2814

1921

292 5

1800

3309

3313

3321

3327

3319

3101

2039

2034

3300

3320

3322

1731

1721

3020

1827 1825

2124

2120 2103 2118

2113

2033

1937

1924 2915 1920

1835

1739

1724

1930

1934

2859

3034 3018 30283026

2128

2125

2105

2025 2023 2017

2850

2935

1833

1816

3213

1738

1832 1828 1824

1820

1817 1801

291 4

290 8 290 4 203 4

1927

1904 1923 1900

301 4 301 0 300 8

3208

3212

1824

1820 1818 1812

2132

2129

2126

2709

271 6

1802

1836

1830

3216

1827

1815 1809

2833 282 9

300 1

1931

1908

1824

303 6

3316

182 4 181 8

2135

2130

2121

DANNEEL ST 291 4 0

302 2

301 2

1939 1935 1912

1832

18 12

2901

1926

2900

1928

301 5

3201

3203

3211

183 6

1833

2009

2010

2001

1933 1912

191 3

HARMONY ST

1924

3210

3212

1927

1839

182 6

291 7

302 1 301 7

301 3

300 9 300 5 300 1

2015

3014

1916

2134

2024

2012

2011

1931

2208 2204

2618

2117

2012

2012 2008

300 0

1935 3218

3324

3318

3317

3313

3309

3307

1913

3221

2135

271 3

0

302 0

301 8

2017

3004

1920 1918

2205

2201

2134

271 5

301 4

3020 301 8

501 9

300 9

300 5

3209

3201

3205

302 3

3027

3026

302 2 302 5

3201

3033 302 9

3313

3307

1921 1917

2213

220 0

2200

2016

3200

3215

183 8 183 2

1924 1920

3301

3321

1901

183 0

2021 2013

2025

2020

2007

192 6 0

1917

1908

1900

2029

2024

2021

1938

193 4 193 0

2224

2211 2138

2209

270 8

2117

331 9

3301

331 3

3318

AVE LOUISIANA

3301

3205

1935 1931 1929

1923

1914

2028

2027

2020

0

2012

1934 1928

2041 2016 2037 2033

2033

2028 2024

2033 2029 2025

2204

2214

2213

2234 2228

2231 2225 2221 2217

2028

2032

2020

2236 2304 2233

2208

2119

S S A R AT O G A S T

2032

2016

1922

2216

2201

2039

2106

2024

2015

2220

2205

2801

2110

202 2

2311 2238 2234 2301 2228 2224

2215

2110

3015

202 7 2021

2229 2714

2223 2219

2712

SITE

2114

2112

2012

1918

LOYOLA A VE

2124 2107 2119 2122 2113 2118

2120 2116

201 9

283 6

284 4

232 1 284 9

284 5 284 1

3003 3001

2125 2136 2121 2132 2130

2036

203 3 202 9

2000

0

2124

2114

303 1

3419

2119

2101

2100

271 7

291 2

292 0

293 2

3027

3017 301 3

2208

2128

2116

2037

3335

292 3

2215

2204 2200

3220

2108

333 1

2200

2214

0 2208

2308 2317 2305 2312 2315 2322 2615 2239 2316

2315 2305 2309

2200

2218

3009 300 7

331 7 331 3

220 8

2233

2322 2301 2316 2237

2321

S L IBERT Y ST

2300

2324

2319

2222

2218 2216

2121

2104

2324

2327

WASHINGTON AVE

2219 2217

221 2

2132

3417

1722

2917 2308

2128

3427

1714

291 6

3322

3316

3312

3324

3316

220 0

0 0

2325

2316

2226 2225

2134

3424

2309

2317

2238 2221 2234 2230

2233 2231

2812

2336 2316 2332 2324 2328 2320 2308 2817 2302 2300

2834

2313

3101 2237

221 8

330 1

3323

3427 3423

2308

3306

0

330 9 330 5

3416

3442

3426

3422

343 6 3430

2133

3428

3422

3420

2309

0

2309

2312

2304

2201

3423

211 3 210 9

2308

2222

2207

2107

2321

222 2

2209

2124 2120

211 7

2312

2227

2231 222 7

2136

212 1

2313

2300

222 3 2219

2200

212 5 212 3

2312

2235

222 6 222 0

2201

2327

2304

2237

221 6 221 2

3421

343 1

3301

222 8

2317 2316

2853

222 1 221 9

221 3

2320

2316

230 6

223 8 223 4

2854

2900

3000

2324

2318

230 5 2303

2209

3200 2328 2320

230 9

2300

2205

233 2 232 8 232 4 232 2

2919

342 3

342 9 342 7

2301

LA SALLE ST

330 0

232 9 232 5 232 3 231 7 2313

0

283 7

2333

2322 2316

2314

293 3 292 7

2326

2321 2317 2313 2309 2305

3319

3428

3422

2336

3418

2320

3432

233 5 232 9 232 5

2322

3229

The following mapping helps to express the property conditions of Central City. The site is surrounded by three open blocks programmed as cemeteries and situated in the middle of Central City. The neighborhood possesses a dense urban fabric with a number of scattered vacant properties yet the population shows low numbers. The scale of the neighborhood consists mainly of one and two-story residential properties with few community and civic spaces.

Lot Status BUILDINGS

OCCUPIED BUILDINGS EMPTY LOT

VACANT BUILDINGS 0

187.5

375

750 FEET

OPEN / REC SPACE PARKING LOT

Map Obtained from NHS

15

S I T E I N F O R M A T I O N_C O N N E C T I O N S A N D N E T W O R K S

LA SALLE ST

S L IBERT Y ST

SITE

AVE

S S A R AT O G A S T

WASHINGTON AVE

LOYOLA A VE

LOUISIANA

HARMONY ST

DANNEEL ST

DRYADES ST

FO URTH ST

SE VE NTH S T

CARONDELET ST

C O NE RY ST

ST

E IG H T H S T

6TH S T

BARONNE ST

TO LE D A N O

The following diagrams help to establish the site as a hinge for the neighborhood as it shows the possible connections with other interventions within Central City. The site is embedded within the existing urban fabric revealing a palimpsest of history expressed through the pastel diagram. Working as a joint, the site is intended to create an interconnected network of axes and interventions with the existing typology in hopes to establish successful integration.

16

S I T E I N F O R M A T I O N_P R O P E R T Y C O N D I T I O N S The site is located in the heart of Central City, New Orleans, LA. Since 2005, the Tulane City Center has sponsored a number of housing prototypes through the Tulane URBANbuild program lending to a juxtaposition within the neighborhood of existing housing typologies up against contemporary interventions.s. ty st. liber

la ave.

loyo

ton

ave.

hing

toga

was eel st. dann

harm

ony

seve

nth st.

sixth

st.

s. sara

ds st. drya

CURRENT RE-DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS: EXPERIENCED AND UNDERSTOOD BY FEW The contemporary re-development efforts throughout Central City become isolated objects within the existing urban fabric as they are unrecognizable and incomprehensible to the surrounding neighborhood.

ION

T LEVA ET E STRE

LOYOLA

SARAT O

GA

DRYA

DS

T

STREE

NA VEN

UE

DANN EEL

GTO

SIXTH

WA SHIN

TH

SEVEN

T STREE

EXISTING HOUSING TYPOLOGY: EXPERIENCED AND UNDERSTOOD BY MANY The Shotgun elicits a sense of nostalgia through its recognizable form, texture, scale and use of material allowing for a comprehension regarding the existing typology within the neighborhood.

17

S I T E I N F O R M A T I O N_P R O P E R T Y C O N D I T I O N S

The neighborhood is composed of a series of layers of information that establish the urban fabric of Central City. Through site analysis, property conditions are revealed and understood. The site proposal is intended to restore this urban fabric to a vacant lot embedded within the neighborhood and surrounded by a cemetery on two sides. By deconstructing a typical community center into a number of pieces dispersed throughout the site, the community block can fit at the scale of the neighborhood as well as establish a series of spaces recognizable to the neighborhood.

PERMANENT SOLID

OCCUPIED STRUCTURE

TRANSIENT SOLID

ABANDONED STRUCTURE

OPEN FABRIC OPEN / PUBLIC INTERSTITIAL SPACE

ABANDONED PROPERTY OPEN SETBACK INTERSTITIAL SPACE ENTRY 18

S I T E I N F O R M A T I O N_P R O P E R T Y C O N D I T I O N S

LINE OF PERMANENCE PERMANENCE

SEMI-PRIVATE

CLAIMED SPACE

TRANSIENT SPACE

PUBLIC

S. SARATOGA

Layers of occupation shift from permanent, private edges into transient spaces and, finally, move through interstitial, public edges as properties meet the street’s edge. It is these layers of occupation that make up the existing urban fabric of Central City and inform the Community Block that works as a stitch between the existing typology and the contemporary typology rendering the current re-development comprehensible.

LOYOLA AVE.

19

PROGRAM DIAGRAMS

OUTDOOR AREAS

OUTDOOR RECREATION

FITNESS CENTER

DINING

MASSING STUDY MODEL The corner conditions of the neighborhood tend to have corner stores usually two stories high, while the block infills are at smaller scales and shift back and forth with varying setback conditions to give Central City its urban fabric. For these reasons, the proposed site plan holds the corners with stronger pieces of program at larger scales and places secondary and tertiary spaces in the center.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE SPACE

RE-DEVELOPMENT CENTER

EXHIBIT SPACE AND ADMINISTRATION

20

PROGRAM DIAGRAMS

The community intervention is intended to stitch the existing typology with the contemporary re-development efforts by weaving the public into the experiential the contemporary typology elicits. By reaching out into the neighborhood and establishing a common urban fabric with contemporary architectonics the current interventions become comprehensible.

By representing the site as a woven model, one begins to understand the layering and extensions of spaces both within the block as well as into the neighborhood.

21

PROGRAM DIAGRAMS outdoor rrecreation

outdoor covered market park media lab/classroom garden

vendor

vendor

vendor

vendor

water retention pool water pavilion

indoor recreation administration

kitchen/dining outdoor covered market

child care

lobby/flex space vendor

vendor

vendor

vendor

vendor

vendor

vendor

vendor swimming pool

reflection pool water retention pool

viewing area/park

outdoor performance area

performance/entertainment space

water retention pool

Preliminary sectional diagrams begin to express the spatial extensions of the site and the registration of scale. The site intends to capture water and shift landscape over and into interior programmatic pieces to establish a collage of spaces that layer each other in differing ways.

The folding of paper as a means to create space helps one to think about thickened walls, programmatic pieces, formal gestures, roof, interior versus exterior and spatial extensions. By beginning to design the site with this medium, space is flexible, malleable and easily changeable. Areas of retension, pause, shade and shadow can be examined and further developed easily. Just as the neighborhood is a layering of information and a palimpsest of time and changes, so becomes the community block.

22

PLANS

SOCCER FIELD

GYM CHECK IN

WATER RETENSION

ADMINISTRATION

INDOOR COURTS

FITNESS ROOM

LOCKER ROOMS

FLOWER SHOP

FITNESS ROOM

CHILDCARE

DESIGN CENTER

RE-DEVELOPMENT CENTER

AFTER SCHOOL CARE

WATER RETENSION

POOL

CLASSROOMS

MEDIA LAB

CAFE

MARKET

BASKETBALL COURT

WATER RETENSION

EXHIBIT SPACE ADMINISTRATION

OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

LOUNGE

INFORMATION

FIRST FLOORPLAN

SECOND FLOORPLAN

The programmatic pieces gesture toward one another to claim exterior space and form spatial extensions. While the buildings house important program in their interiors, each hold spatial qualities as diagrammed previuosly such as, areas of permanence, interstial spaces and public open areas. Each formal gesture allows the program and engagement of the site to extend beyond the building proper.

The program encourages culture and community re-development through involvement and the experientail. There are three recreational areas that are 2 feet below grade allwoing them to serve as water retension areas during times of flooding. The program of the site responds to the neighborhood, the current re-development as well as changing lanscape of New Orleans.

23

PLANS AS COLLAGE

SOCCER FIELD

GYM CHECK IN

WATER RETENSION

ADMINISTRATION

INDOOR COURTS

FITNESS ROOM

LOCKER ROOMS

FLOWER SHOP

FITNESS ROOM

CHILDCARE

DESIGN CENTER

RE-DEVELOPMENT CENTER

AFTER SCHOOL CARE

WATER RETENSION

POOL

CLASSROOMS

MEDIA LAB

CAFE

MARKET

BASKETBALL COURT

WATER RETENSION

EXHIBIT SPACE ADMINISTRATION

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE

LOUNGE

INFORMATION

FIRST FLOORPLAN

SECOND FLOORPLAN

The proposal is a layering of spaces and information onto the site in hopes to engage the site as a whole and allow for the restoration of the urban fabric to a vacant block. By diagramming the layering of spaces, one can begin to understand the process as well as the organization of the site. Each diagram has been etched into plexi-glass and coded. These plates slip over the plans and read up against study models for further understanding as a collage.

BLG PROPER

SPATIAL EXTENSIONS

GROUND COVER

PATH

WATER RETENSION

SHADOW

24

V I E W O F R E-D E V E L O P M E N T C E N T E R

VIEW OF CAFE FROM 6TH STREET

25

SEMI-PRIVATE

PERMANENCE

S. SARATOGA

Layers of occupation shift from permanent, private edges into transient spaces and, finally, move through interstitial, public edges as properties meet the street’s edge. It is these layers of occupation that make up the existing urban fabric of Central City and inform the Community Block that works as a stitch between the existing typology and the contemporary typology rendering the current redevelopment comprehensible.

PUBLIC

LOYOLA AVENUE

CLAIMED SPACE

MASSING STUDY MODEL

TRANSIENT SPACE

SCALE: 1’-0”=3’32”

CIRCULATION STUDY

PROPERTY CONDITIONS

ENTRY

INTERSTITIAL SPACE

OPEN SETBACK

INTERSTITIAL SPACE

ABANDONED PROPERTY

OPEN FABRIC OPEN / PUBLIC

OCCUPIED STRUCTURE ABANDONED STRUCTURE

PERMANENT SOLID TRANSIENT SOLID

SCALE: 1’-0”=1/16”

SCALE: 1’-0”=3’32”

BASKETBALL COURT

CLASSROOMS

SOCCER FIELD

FIRST FLOORPLAN

FLOWER SHOP

RE-DEVELOPMENT CENTER

WATER RETENSION

WATER RETENSION

CAFE

EXHIBIT SPACE

CHILDCARE

FITNESS ROOM

FITNESS ROOM LOCKER ROOMS

INFORMATION

LOUNGE

RE-DEVELOPMENT CENTER

FITNESS CENTER

OUTDOOR RECREATION

EXHIBIT SPACE AND ADMINISTRATION

MUSIC PERFORMANCE SPACE

DINING

PROGRAM DIAGRAM: 3/32” SCALE

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

POOL

WATER RETENSION

VIEW OF RE-DEVELOPMENT CENTER ER FROM SEVENTH S STREET

SCALE: 1’-0”=1/16”

OUTDOOR AREAS

SECOND FLOORPLAN

The contemporary re-development efforts throughout Central City become isolated objects within the existing urban fabric as they are unrecognizable and incomprehensible to the surrounding neighborhood.

S. Bro

ad Str eet

MARKET

CURRENT RE-DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS: EXPERIENCED AND UNDERSTOOD BY FEW

ue

Caliop Felicity

Aven

e

livar

This proposal, concentrated in the heart of Central City, New Orleans, explores a way of developing a connection to the historic fabric while explicating the contemporary goals of re-development. Through programmatic and socially driven elements, it will work as both a physical and geographical stitch within the neighborhood and community. As the current contemporary interventions in this area act as isolated, dispersed nodes, the proposed Community Block must work as the anchor that will didactically allow for the experiential.

OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE

Claibo rne

Aven

Sim on Bo

The Contextualization of the Current Re-development Efforts in Central City, New Orleans

AFTER SCHOOL CARE

es Av

ue

enue

MEDIA LAB

DESIGN CENTER

Charl Saint

How can contemporary design in New Orleans establish a catalyst that sponsors social interaction and re-establishes the sensibilities of community while the enactors of a culture are widely dispersed? The new typology must begin to architecturally explore section while emerging into a social consciousness. This re-development should establish a series of interconnected networks that link the city and spaces together as an inter-woven urban fabric, each responding to eachother as well as the changing topography, environment and program. This contemporary typology, most importantly, must posses new building principles that embrace section while remaining focused on a socially responsible ideal that works to re-establish the community network while alleviating the social costs of gentrification in order to lend itself as a positive means of enabling a community and a city through built form.

ET H STRE SEVENT

INDOOR COURTS

COMMUNITY COLLAGE:

GYM

ADMINISTRATION

LINE OF PERMANENCE

Louisia na

26

ADMINISTRATION

SCALE: 1’-0”=1/16”

H SIXT

STRE

ET

COMPOSITE SITE PLAN

WA SHIN GTO

NA VEN UE CHECK IN

N ATIO ELEV

DRYA DS

SARA TOGA

SCALE: 1’-0”=1/16”

The Shotgun elicits a sense of nostalgia through its recognizable form, texture, scale and use of material allowing for a comprehension regarding the existing typology within the neighborhood.

EXISTING HOUSING TYPOLOGY: EXPERIENCED AND UNDERSTOOD BY MANY

DANN EEL

ET STRE

SEVENTH STREET ELEVATION

VIEW OF FITNESS CENTER FROM SIXTH STREET

VIEW OF CAFE FROM MARKET

BUILDING PROPER

SPATIAL EXTENSION

GROUND COVER

PATH/ENTRY

WATER RETENTION

SHADE/SHAD0W

LOYOLA

A N N O T A T E D_B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Al, Et, Philip Langdon, and Robert Steuteville. New Urbanism: Comprehensive Report & Best Practices Guide, Third Edition . New York: New Urban Publications Inc., 2006.

New Urbanism: Comprehensive Report and Best Practices Guide almost serves as a handbook or technical manual for New Urbanists as it breaks down the ideals and principles of the practice. The book characterizes the information as a method of building human-scale neighborhoods in place of single-use subdivisions, shopping centers, and office parks. The report’s 26 sections describe New Urbanism towns, villages, neighborhoods and infill projects around the country and the world providing a number of precedence for best practices.

The sections cover principles of human-scale communities, trends in community design and how-to information on building concepts, materials and methods.

There are also a number of sections that review revitalization, retail development, marketing, finance, affordability, environmental concerns, legal issues and planning through charette.

Focusing on community re-development requires the need to analyze a number of strategies and precedence lending to the study of New Urbanism through the use of New Urbanism: Comprehensive Report and Best Practices Guide.

The breakdown of sections and principles provides a better

understanding of the ideals used for community design and re-development which can be adopted in a number of urban design areas both financially and physically.

The manual presented best practices on a number of scales in a

variety of areas allowing for an increased understanding of New Urbanism in changing urban landscapes and, therefore, the ability to formulate a developed criticism. For example, while the principles of New Urbanism address these varying scales and sites as well as attempt to provide spaces for a community, the result is a highly structured neighborhood or city with a number of social implications such as, gentrification.

27

Allen, Barbara. "New Orleans and Katrina: One Year later." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 4-6.

There is a clear sense of identity in New Orleans and the above article begins to look at the distinction of place and what it is that qualifies a particular space a place. This article also questions the ability of urban form to establish place helping to push along the argument that community is established through a sense of being and belonging not the clustering of housing in a particular neighborhood.

Barrie, Thomas. The Youth Village Urban Design Project: Re-building Detroit for future generations .

Royal Oak: Northern Area Association and College Of Architecture and Design, Lawrence Technological University With The Center For Urban Affairs, Community And Economic Development, Michigan State University, 2000.

The Youth Village is an urban design project in Detroit, Michigan with focus on the Northern High School Area and conducted by students at the College of Architecture and Design, Lawrence Technological University. The studio attempted to provide a unique educational experience by participating in community-based architectural, urban design and community development projects. There was an emphasis on community design through the redevelopment of housing, blighted areas, open space and neighborhood shopping.

The project began by reviewing existing land-use, circulation, transportation, open space and zoning codes. Inventories were made of the property conditions and research was gathered concerning the history of the area as well as on contemporary design theories and precedence. As a result of the analysis, guidelines were established and proposals presented.

The Youth Village Urban Design Project has established a series of steps to follow for redevelopment of an area. While all sites differ and proposals may vary, the principles followed and analysis gathered helps provide a systemic manner of attempting a design project in a city stricken with poverty and abandonment. Finally, many of the issues that were studied for the development of this project are similar, if not the same, to those I plan to further explore; for 28

example, analysis of the physical site, study of its history, a review of existing land use and zoning and feasible economic development.

Berman, Ila, and Mona Khalif. URBANbuild: Local, Global . Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008.

URBANbuild: Local, Global documents the URBANbuild Studio’s first two years of work, a comprehensive program at Tulane University School of Architecture initiated to actively support the rehabilitation of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is a double-sided book that connects and compares local research, analysis and design to that of varying watercities. It establishes a broader framework in which embraces the knowledge and experience drawn from these world cities and uses it as a precedence for the re-development strategies of New Orleans.

This book provides one with a certain level of mapping and analysis lending to a better understanding of New Orleans.

Blakely, Edward J. "A Cry for a City: What is Happening to New Orleans." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 9-12.

There is a focus on the changes that New Orleans may see after Katrina and expresses the concern that the city may experience forms of gentrification during its rebuild. These issues are much of what I am thinking about while I do research and lend themselves to the question: How can architecture mitigate gentrification as it re-develops the city?

Carmon, Naomi, and Morris Hill. "Neighborhood Rehabilitation Without Relocation or Gentrification." Journal of the American Planning Association 54, no. 4 (1988): 470-481.

The city of New Orleans can turn to other re-building projects as relevant examples. For instance, Israel’s Project Renewal, flourishing between 1977-1984, upheld the principles of reducing social disparity between the differing income classes and eliminating the effects of gentrification as efforts were placed on the rehabilitation of a number of residential neighborhoods.

29

While abroad, Israel’s renewal compares extensively with many American city re-development plans as it holds a large concentration of poor families encompassing neighborhoods with little cultural cohesiveness, integration within the community, as well as serious city decline. “They found that the positive social features of old neighborhoods, such as extended families and religious congregations, disappeared when residents were relocated; and the destruction of those traditional institutions and support networks aggravated existing social problems.”

1

Through the selection of entire neighborhoods,

rather than individual households, all within that area were eligible for help and rehabilitation. This allowed for equal opportunity and alleviated the tendency for affluent residents to leave these poorer areas as they now had an incentive to remain. There was also an effort to provide residents with involvement in the planning and implementation process through discussion, volunteer work and job opportunities for paraprofessionals within the community. The provided funding for the Project Renewal enabled improvements to the neighborhoods for example, by means of do-it-yourself home improvements, expansion of apartments to the average square footages within the city, as well as socially implemented programs available to the children and adults. Specifically, “nearly half of the funding was invested in housing, physical infrastructure, and environment improvements; the rest went for social services: 20 percent for construction and renovation of public buildings for the services and 30 percent for operating them.” 2 While Israel’s Project Renewal may not have taken care of all the problems the many neighborhoods possessed, there was a significant impact to the living conditions along with an improvement in education and cultural and community services. The principles upheld during the rehabilitation of Israel’s

1

Naomi Carmon and Morris Hill, "Neighborhood Rehabilitation Without Relocation or Gentrification." Journal of the American Planning Association 54, no. 4 (1988): 475.

2

Naomi Carmon and Morris Hill, "Neighborhood Rehabilitation Without Relocation or Gentrification." Journal of the American Planning Association 54, no. 4 (1988): 475.

30

neighborhoods coincide with the ideals of positive community re-development as there was an emphasis placed on mitigating gentrification, a focus placed on providing services for the residents of the community with their involvement in the process and a concern placed on the sociability of the community and culture.

Clarke, Paul. "The Ideal of Community and Its Counterfeit Construction." Journal of Architectural Education (2006): 43-52.

In the article, The Ideal of Community and Its Counterfeit Construction, Clarke questions the idea of community both socially and physically as well as the evolution of the term and its development into an American dream ideology.

Clarke begins by defining the principles of New Urbanism while simultaneously criticizing the results of these formulated communities and neighborhoods.

Clarke explains that New Urbanist principles, while they may aspire to promote diversity through inclusivity, most often, become developments for affluent residents and areas of segregation. The idea of community has become a search for self identity and, therefore, is perceived differently by varying individuals.

If a place is much more than a location, than it can also be argued that it is one’s social relationships, shared public life and commonalities with others that begin to form what is thought of as community. Clarke concludes that the rebuilding of a social structure and community is more complex than imagined and impossible to achieve through New Urbanist ideals as diversity and equality in a unified communitarian context are difficult to achieve.

As community is the basis of my thesis, a discourse pertaining to these ideals enables for one to truly question what it means to be a part of a community and culture. Many of the questions posed by my thesis are in favor of community and in disfavor of New Urbanism; linking these two together helps to view both in a differing light.

31

Herscher, Andrew. “American Urbicide.� Journal of Architectural Education (2006): 18-20.

Andrew Herscher speaks about Hurricane Katrina as a form of urbicide as it has created many of the same issues the genealogy of this term exemplifies. There is a discussion concerning Katrina as an amplifier of the many social issues New Orleans was already suffering from. This discourse helps to prove the idea concerning Katrina as a vehicle for the city’s gentrification.

Kahera, Akel I. "To Live or Die in New Orleans." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 2022.

This particular article speaks about the architectural responsibility to service a community and enable it through the re-development of New Orleans.

There is much discussion concerning what it means to be a community and what is currently the architectural typology of community development. This article sparks questions concerning New Urbanism and community that help provide this thesis with direction as many of the views and principles are in line with the ideals upheld in my proposed architectural typology.

Lees, Loretta, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly. Gentrification . New York: Routledge, 2007.

Gentrification serves as the first comprehensive textbook concerning the topic of Gentrification. The gentrification of urban areas has accelerated across the globe to become a central engine of urban development, and it is a topic that has attracted a great deal of interest both in academia and in the press. This book presents the birth of gentrification, the resulting products and its evolution into a contemporary social issue. It traces its mutations under a shifting social ideology and discusses the resistant cultural implications.

Gentrification, the book, also provides arguments for and against gentrification through case studies while supplying the major theoretical ideas and concepts.

32

Gentrification has evolved into a major social topic under much scrutiny as many sociologists disfavor its implications while a number of city officials welcome the changes it imparts on the city’s central core, for example. Much of contemporary urban design has enabled gentrification as it promotes affluent residential living and causes displacement of lower-income families. Studying and understanding the social products of a shifting architectural typology promotes responsible re-developmental design.

Much of these social shifts have occurred throughout New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as many of it residents were displaced and, in most cases, can not afford to re-build. When addressing the issue of redevelopment, it becomes important to remember the social implications gentrification imparts on a city as much of New Orleans’ culture is established by those that are now scattered and racially segregated through city planning and architectural practices.

Makker, Kirin J. "The Gift of Poetry En Route." Journal of Architectural Education 60, (2006): 2425.

The “Gift of Poetry En Route” is a short article expressing concern in regards to a lifeless community. Makker worries that New Orleans in danger of losing its culture as so many of the enactors of that culture have been recently displaced and scattered due to the flooding of Hurricane Katrina. The author argues that while the destruction of the Gulf Coast has imparted a number of social issues onto the residents of the area, the loss of land, place and the built environment are not the single elements that generate community.

Much of the re-development of New Orleans is focused on rebuilding what has been lost, yet it is important to rebuild the social fabric as well.

Housing re-development is becoming prevalent with little focus on civic, cultural and community centers lending to isolated re-construction of a scattered city.

An opportunity is provided to re-establish what it means to be a community and question how the built environment can enable this ideal.

33

Owen, Graham. "In Dark Waters: Opportunity and Opportunism in the Reconstruction of New Orleans." Journal of Architectural Education 60, no. 1 (2006): 7-9.

“In Dark Waters” gives way to the idea of and architecture op as it compares to a photo op. At the moment New Orleans is in a state of redevelopment which gives way to the many opportunities available for architects and planners. The article questions how the city will change and who will these changes be made for. It addresses both gentrification and New Urbanism as results to the need for re-development as places criticism on both, taking similar views of my intended research.

Smith, Neil. New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Urban Strategy . Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

This article launches arguments based on the relationship of urbanism to globalization in relation to New York in the 1990’s. There is much discussion concerning gentrification as an urban strategy and discusses the evolution of gentrification as well as the evolution of the term’s connotation. While looking at a form of social architecture and a means to enable a community, I am attempting to mitigate gentrification. Studying this evolution as an urban strategy will provide a basis for critique.

Smith, Neil. The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City . New York: Routledge, 1996.

This book challenges conventional wisdom, which holds gentrification to be the simple outcome of new middle-class tastes and a demand for urban living. It reveals gentrification as a part of a much larger shift in the political economy and culture of the late twentieth century. Documenting in detail the conflicts that gentrification brings to the new ‘urban frontier,’ Neil Smith explores the interconnections of urban policy, patterns of investment, eviction, and homelessness. Smith reveals that public policy and the private market are conspiring against minorities, working people, the poor and the homeless more 34

than ever which has proven gentrification as a policy of revenge.

35

C A S E S T U D Y_G U L F C O A S T C O M M U N I T Y D E S I G N S T U D I O The Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi is a research extension of Mississippi State University’s College of Architecture. Art + Design. Following Hurricane Katrina, GCCDS provided Biloxi with damage assessment maps, planning as well as design services. The studio’s design services are offered to low income families in need of re-building. Each project is designed in close relationship with the homeowner preserving the individual needs of each resident while keeping in mind the hardships each have undergone. The result is a site specific, non-speculative housing proposal that achieves a socially responsible agenda with a design consciousness. This ideal has proven successful as GCCDS has built more than 80 homes.

Most recently, the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio has begun to shift to a larger scale of re-development with the design of a health clinic and the housing proposals for Moss Point, Mississippi. Partnering up with East Biloxi Coordination, Relief, and Redevelopment Agency, GCCDS is currently looking into acquiring sites for multi-use buildings incorporating multi-unit housing. While a focus is now placed on a larger scale, the ideals of the studio are the same, “commitment to citizen participation and an effort to rebuild diverse and complete cities and to preserve and restore the unique natural and cultural resources along the coast.”

The community commitment and successful re-build of a city lends GCCDS as an ideal example for neighborhood re-development as it pertains to New Orleans. The housing interventions within Biloxi become embedded into the urban fabric of the city as each design tends to respond to the context of the neighborhood as well as the ecological awareness that is now apparent after Katrina. The changing architectural typology of the city as well as the ideals of the studio serve as a model for future re-build efforts both at a. small and large scale.

36

C A S E S T U D Y_G L E N E A G L E C O M M U N I T Y C E N T E R The Gleneagles Community Centrer is located in West Vancouver adjacent to the Gleneagles Golf Course. The project is 24, 000 square feet in area, organized on three levels. Program components include a gymnasium, multipurpose room, community living room, and fitness, childcare, and administrative facilities. By adjusting the cross-sectional topography of the site, the majority of program components have direct access to complimentary outdoor spaces. The gymnasium volume is a unifying space that rises through all three levels of the building. Glazed walls allow visual connection between the major program components so that the interior of the community centre is animated by the complex variety of simultaneous activities that comprise the social life of the building.

The building utilizes a highly innovative system of structural/ mechanical/ electrical systems integration to foster environmental sustainability while minimizing operating costs. Heating and cooling is provided by a thermo-active slab system, consisting of water piping embedded within the concrete structure. Heated and cooled water passes through the piping, allowing the walls and floors to act as radiant surfaces. Ventilation is accomplished using a displacement system. 100% fresh air is tempered and supplied at low velocity at low levels. This air rises, flushing contaminants upward where it is then captured and exhausted. As air is not being used for heating or cooling, operable doors and windows may be used at any time without affecting the performance of the system. Heating and cooling for the mechanical systems is provided by heat pumps in combination with a ground source heat exchanger, a clean energy source.

The center works to promote social interaction of a community while simultaneously implementing sustainable practices. While creating a contemporary built form, it remains important to consider changing environmental conditions along with social implications. The following case study gives precedence for a community based project that remains socially and physically responsible.

37

C A S E S T U D Y_G L O B A L G R E E N ‘ S H O L Y C R O S S P R O J E C T Global Green is dedicated to the issues of sustainability and is committed to developing a green model for the re-building of New Orleans. It has begun working on four projects, the Build it Back Green program, the Green Building Resource Center, the Green Schools program, and the Holy Cross Project, in hopes to incorporate the goals and ideals of Global Green into the city. Build it Back Green strives to educate residents of New Orleans and inform them of energy efficient ways and options for re-building their homes post-Katrina while the Green Building Resource Center allows for the community to gather together and, most importantly, serves as an information hub open to the public. The Green Schools program not only retrofits schools in New Orleans with energy efficient and healthy measures, but it also promotes environmental education to the future of New Orleans. Lastly, Global Green’s Holy Cross Project is attempting to rebuild a community in the ninth ward by introducing single family homes, apartments, a community center and educational resources. With all of the above projects, the primary goal is education for New Orleanians, the Gulf Coast, and the broader American public while simultaneously re-building and re-establishing a sense of community to the public.

The combined efforts of re-development, establish Global Green as a case study for the rebuilding of a neighborhood as there is focus placed on housing, education and community development. Due to these proposals, the urban fabric of the ninth ward has the potential to become an interconnected system as each program is woven into the neighborhood eliminating individual growth and rebuild but rather promotes positive re-development for a community as a whole. The Holy Cross Project serves as precedence as it aims at re-establishing an urban typology for the ninth ward and strives to establish a sustainable project and lifestyle. .

38

C A S E S T U D Y_H O P E V I ‘ S R I V E R G A R D E N River Garden is a new urbanist community sitting on 60 acres, once the site of St. Thomas Public Housing Project. This new project, bordering the Warehouse District along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, was created by the HUD HOPE VI Redevelopment. The HOPE VI program plays a large role in the Department of Housing and Urban Development efforts to transform Public Housing with attempts to build public housing that provides both physical and management improvements to a community as well as social and community services to address resident needs.

The River Garden Apartments were built to look like a historic New Orleans neighborhood, with tropical pastel paints, shuttered windows, and the integration of porches or stoops, yet the feel is new, sterile and more suburban. While attempting to rebuild a community and revamp a once decaying area, River Garden has displaced a number of residents and has begun to impart the effects of gentrification unto its existing residents. HOPE VI’s New Urbanist principles of re-development have imbedded a new housing project that replicates the past architectural typologies of the city and abandons the need for change and evaluation. While the area looks new and resolved, crime remains an issue and the streets see little residential engagement.

Using a New Urbanism based project as a case study provides precedence for unsuccessful development in which gentrification effects are apparent and housing is established without a sense of community rebuild. The River Garden project, while embedded within the urban fabric of New Orleans, appears as an island surrounded by a historical layering of housing and architecture with little integration and connection.

39

C A S E S T U D Y_I S R A E L ‘ S P R O J E C T R E N E W A L The city of New Orleans can turn to other re-building projects as relevant examples. For instance, Israel’s Project Renewal, flourishing between 1977-1984, upheld the principles of reducing social disparity between the differing income classes and eliminating the effects of gentrification as efforts were placed on the rehabilitation of a number of residential neighborhoods. While abroad, Israel’s renewal compares extensively with many American city re-development plans as it holds a large concentration of poor families encompassing neighborhoods with little cultural cohesiveness, integration within the community, as well as serious city decline. “They found that the positive social features of old neighborhoods, such as extended families and religious congregations, disappeared when residents were relocated; and the destruction of those traditional institutions and support networks aggravated existing social problems.” Through the selection of entire neighborhoods, rather than individual households, all within that area were eligible for help and rehabilitation. This allowed for equal opportunity and alleviated the tendency for affluent residents to leave these poorer areas as they now had an incentive to remain. There was also an effort to provide residents with involvement in the planning and implementation process through discussion, volunteer work and job opportunities for paraprofessionals within the community. The provided funding for the Project Renewal enabled improvements to the neighborhoods for example, by means of do-it-yourself home improvements, expansion of apartments to the average square footages within the city, as well as socially implemented programs available to the children and adults.

Specifically, “nearly half of the funding was invested in housing, physical infrastructure, and environment improvements; the rest went for social services: 20 percent for construction and renovation of public buildings for the services and 30 percent for operating them.” While Israel’s Project Renewal may not have taken care of all the problems the many neighborhoods possessed, there was a significant impact to the living conditions along with an improvement in education and cultural and community services. The principles upheld during the rehabilitation of Israel’s neighborhoods coincide with the ideals of positive community re-development as there was an emphasis placed on mitigating gentrification, a focus placed on providing services for the residents of the community with their involvement in the process and a concern placed on the sociability of the community and culture.

C A S E S T U D Y_T H E Y OU T H V I L L A G E The Youth Village is an urban design project in Detroit, Michigan with focus on the Northern High School Area and conducted by students at the College of Architecture and Design, Lawrence Technological University. The studio attempted to provide a unique educational experience by participating in community-based architectural, urban design and community development projects. There was an emphasis on community design through the re-development of housing, blighted areas, open space and neighborhood shopping.

The project began by reviewing existing land-use, circulation, transportation, open space and zoning codes. Inventories were made of the property conditions and research was gathered concerning the history of the area as well as on contemporary design theories and precedence. As a result of the analysis, guidelines were established and proposals presented. .

The Youth Village Urban Design Project has established a series of steps to follow for redevelopment of an area. While all sites differ and proposals may vary, the principles followed and analysis gathered helps provide a systemic manner of attempting a design project in a city stricken with poverty and abandonment. Finally, many of the issues that were studied for the development of this project are similar, if not the same, to those I plan to further explore; for example, analysis of the physical site, study of its history, a review of existing land use and zoning as well as feasible economic development.

40

C A S E S T U D Y_K A T U A Q C U L T U R E C E N T E R Katuaq contains two auditoriums, the larger one seating 1008 people and the smaller one 508. The big auditorium is used for concerts, theatre, conferences and as a cinema. The complex also contains an art school, library, meeting facilities, administrative offices and a cafĂŠ.

Katuaq is an L-shaped building with an undulating, backward leaning screen facing onto Nuuk's central urban space. Raised above the ground and clad in golden larch wood on both the inside and outside. The screen is inspired by the northern lights. This second skin also creates a contrast to the building proper. Between the perimeter screen and the core building lies the large foyer with three white freestanding elements in the shape of a triangle, square and circle.

While Katuaq Culture Center is located in Greenland and designed in an entirely differing climate from New Orleans, looking at the facilities it offers and its success of formal gestures helps to offer suggestions as to how a community center functions positively.

41

C A S E S T U D Y_M A K E I T R I G H T Make It Right is a housing organization that is working to rebuild the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana with a goal to place at least 150 families into affordable, green storm resistant homes. Make It Right relies on the generosity of architects, local, national and international, who donate their designs of single-family homes and duplexes. Beyond building new homes for residents who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, Make It Right also works as a laboratory for testing and implementing new construction techniques, technologies and materials that will make green, storm resistant homes affordable and broadly available to working families in communities across America.

The houses of Make It Right are rethinking what it means to build in a watercity in an area below sea-level and establishing a response to these issue which in turn allows for the residents of these communities the “right of return.� Each home takes contextual ideas of the urban fabric and re-evaluates them into an architecture of a changing landscape and typology. This effort is successful as it has been given a blank slate providing an object-like architecture that is alleviated from a competing, pre-existing fabric. Every house provides elements of precedence that can be then implemented throughout the city during other stages of re-build and ecological responses.

42

C A S E S T U D Y_O A K D A L E C O M M U N I T Y C E N T E R The Oakdale Community Centre is located at the edge of a suburban park in North York, Ontario. The building consists of a gymnasium, seniors’ and children’s multipurpose rooms, and an outdoor children’s swimming pool.

The building is organized linearly along the street to reinforce a precinct of public buildings with the nearby school. A steel canopy runs the length of the building, providing protected outdoor areas at the entries, and defining areas for outdoor activities to occur. The primary activity spaces are located on the park side of the building, and are linked together with a long connecting space that supports a variety of informal activities. This connecting space is fully glazed, so that passers-by on the street can see the activities within, as well as the pool on the opposite side of the building.

The construction of the building responds to the sided nature of the site. The active, street side of the building is constructed primarily of exposed structural steel and curtain wall glazing with masonry and ceramic tile infill. The mute, park side of the building is constructed of stucco-clad masonry, and is intended, over time, to become covered with Virginia Creeper. Bright colors are used seniors’ and children’s multipurpose rooms, and an outdoor children’s swimming pool.

This Community center works at a smaller scale and addresses the street while incorporating park spaces. Looking at a number of scales helps to analyze how differing centers address a neighborhood and a city block.

43

C A S E S T U D Y_R U R A L S T U D I O Rural Studio is a design-build studio through the University Of Auburn School Of Architecture started by professors Dennis K. Ruth and Samuel Mockbee in 1993 as a community outreach program. The studio attempts to improve the living conditions in rural Alabama while enabling the students to experience practical architectural practices. The projects are scattered throughout Hale, Marengo and Perry County in western Alabama and range from affordable housing to civic centers and recreational areas. The program focuses on providing solutions to community need based issues within its own context while incorporating neighborhood involvement.

The studio is successfully integrating a number of interventions within a historic fabric with a constant response to the typology and topography of the area. While the existing fabric of the rural Alabama lacks density and an adaptation to the present conditions, Rural Studio attempts to address these matters with socially responsible architecture for the community. By implementing projects of varying scales and programs, the studio is able to address a number of issues, socially and physically. This design-build program has developed an architecture that is responsive and highly integrated within its context while remaining to establish a contemporary typology for the area lending the studio and its projects to serve as an ideal case study.

44

C A S E S T U D Y_U R B A N b u i l d URBANbuild is a design build studio out of Tulane School of Architecture in which students participate in the design, development and construction of affordable housing in low income areas of New Orleans, Louisiana. Each fall semester, students in the URBANbuild studio are asked to study the context and address the issues of site and prototypical design resulting in the submission of a number of design strategies for an affordable three bedroom two bath house.

The houses designed in the URBANbuild studio implement prototypical elements but, most often, evolve into custom homes made affordable with volunteer, student labor. Each home is successful as they relate to the scale of the city and integrate typical housing ttypologies of New Orleanian homes such as, porches and a relation to the street.

The program establishes object-like architecture within a historic context and fails to create a unified connection both with each intervention as well as the urban fabric. However, each house addresses a changing typology and successfully adapts to the ecological implications Hurricane Katrina has made apparent to the city of New Orleans. The above issues lend URBANbuild as an ideal analysis for modern housing interventions within a dense urban context. The re-development of housing is just a single aspect of the re-building necessary in a city stricken with poverty, blight and abandonment. As a case study, one can critique this model and begin to establish a proposal for connection and community integration as these are lacking in URBANbuild and have proven necessary.

45

C A S E S T U D Y_V U O T A L O C U L T U R A L C E N T E R Vuotalo Cultural Center is located in Helsinki, Finland and is surrounded by a school and shopping center. The ground floor houses a library, above which sits an auditorium; and light is brought in via large wells and a full height winter garden. Also included in the space is an educational center, performance spaces, as well as offices.

The basic design solution of the Centre resembles a hinge, where multi-level functional and traffic connections are integrated. The building opens out along its entire length towards a pedestrian route while turning its back against a busy bus traffic artery. All the activities of the building are visible at a glance behind the 2-story glazed main facade. The rear side, on the other hand, is covered with stainless steel chain-link conveyor belt normally used in the processing industry, which, depending on lighting and the angle of view, appears to cover the facade behind it in a silvery armor or scales of a salmon – or turns it completely transparent.

This proves as a relevant case study as it acts as a joint for the growing population and integrates a number of facilities. The building helps to articulate the landscape with its varying forms helping to inform gestures that may be adopted in a flat cityscape, such as New Orleans.

46