On Stilts- Post Katrina

After Katrina, there were many discussions on people building back to Base Flood Elevation and ending up with a coastal fishing camp character throughout neighborhoods.

It did not happen but this builder did not get the memo obviously. This sits in a very nice part of Uptown New Orleans and exemplifies the fear of houses on stilts.

Story in Rain Water Harvesting

Rainwater Harvesting

I heard this on the way in this morning.

You normally think, here in New Orleans, there is plenty of water, which there is. Too much water.

If we drained less to the storm sewer it would be less strain on pumping system and outfall canals.

LLOG Under Construction

Office Building

Athletic Club

Post tension cable termination at Health Club

Office Building

This is construction on an office building which is the first project I worked on at Eskew+ Dumez+ Ripple, detailing the building envelope. This building is located in Covington, LA. This was somethign I was thrilled to work on and it appears to be coming along nicely.

Re-Recovery

Gustav did not do as much damage in New Orleans but still enough to revisit the FEMA Project Worksheets that have yet to be completed since Katrina and Rita. It should be interesting to see how that works. Though New Orleans did do okay with Gustav, our neighboring towns and parishes around the state have received plenty of damage, inflicting significant hardship on the folks who live there. Though we are concerned about these people and places, we are still in Katrina recovery, 3 years later. Given the fact that many if the civic minded are trying to use the rebuilding from Katrina to correct some of the major problems of the city, you could really say that New Orleans is in a recovery from itself.

Just as intertwined as the core of a hardball, every component of community life is intertwined. Everything is priority and everything begs the question "what comes first, the chicken or the egg". Repopulation of the neighborhoods, flood protection, building issues, damaged blighted abandoned housing are some of the direct components. The indirect ones involve housing, schools, economy, crime, corruption, public safety, preservation and health care. All components are critical to come back online but also require current evaluation and a careful glance at the future before implementation.

It would be a luxury if citizens did not have to use these pieces of the community while the restructuring was going on but that is not the case. This requires things to press forth at rapid speed, in a place where things normally do not change rapidly. The consensus usually found is that the city should retain it's own uniqueness while also making the needed advancements. Democracy and the expectation of public input has the ability to put a range of perspective on the situation but can also slow things down.

Some things to stay aware of a this point, 3 years out is that the "jack o lantern" effect is happening, city recovery effort does not seem to really have any teeth and it is very questionable as to what will happen next. To be continued..