BUILDING SOLUTIONS

Even before The Ogden Museum of Southern Art reopened October 27, 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, the Museum's staff was exploring architectural rebuilding concepts. Immediately, the staff realized the Museum's role in serving as a significant platform for architectural renewal, and began researching and exploring related challenges in other parts of the South.

While these projects focus on New Orleans, they have a universal and broad application for the Gulf Coast and Southern regions given its examination of material usage, structural issues and design.

Building Solutions Part I

A. Learning from Charleston: Hurricanes Hugo and Katrina
January - March 2006, organized by the Ogden Museum

This exhibition examined the role of architectural design with four built projects in Charleston, SC and two conceptual housing schemes and one built project in New Orleans.

In 1989 Hurricane Hugo ravaged Charleston, SC as a strong Category Four storm, the strongest tropical cyclone to strike South Carolina since the Great Sea Island Hurricane in 1893. The resulting damage to this historical city was severe. Charleston’s response to the damage offers potential rebuilding ideas for New Orleans. Four projects in this exhibition represent architectural designs that grew out of the aftermath of the storm.

Issues of regional and urban planning, low cost housing, the role of public commissions and sturdier structures that meet the requirements of stronger building codes were all important factors in rebuilding the city of Charleston, as they are now in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Katrina.

B. Errol Barron, the architect for the Ogden Museum, provided sketches of the hurricane-proof design of the building, with details of the hurricane reinforced steel and glass facade, as well as elevation standards to protect the Museum's collection.

Also included was Barron's original post-Katrina design called Armadillo House, a raised, affordable housing alternative.

C. Robert Tannen, urban planner and artist, provided a concept for a raised grid to house multiple FEMA trailers, in an effort to reuse and recycle them, offering new life to a temporary housing situation.

Building Solutions II

A. Architectural Record Competition & the Tulane School of Architecture
April - June 2006, organized by Architectural Record Magazine

Students and professionals offered a diverse range of solutions in more than 600 entries for two competitions initiated by Architectural Record, working in a partnership with Tulane Universitys School of Architecture. The Ogden hosted the premiere of the international traveling exhibition in May 2006. From the 60 finalists, Architectural Record editor Robert Ivy, FAIA, and Reed Kroloff from Tulane School of Architecture, along with jurors listed below, announced the winners of the competition at the Ogden Museum, May 18, 2006.

1. High Density on High Ground The High Density on the High Ground Competition asked professionals to propose a 160-unit housing development, which could vary widely in size from 700 to 2,100 square feet, as well as 15,000 square feet of retail and a 5,000-square-foot city center€� studio space for Tulane. Jurors: Eric Naslund, FAIA, Mario Gooden, Steve Dumez, AIA, Mabel Wilson and Sean Cummings.

2. New Orleans Prototype House As New Orleans faces a future in which widespread abandonment is a real possibility, this competition, open only to current architecture students, sought designs for a three-bedroom house that responds to the citys new circumstances one that is easy to install on an infill site, that rises above flood waters, and that respects the local climate and environment. Jurors: Brian MacKay-Lyons, FAIA, Patty Gay, Robert Ivy, FAIA, Trey Trahan, FAIA

B. Tulane School of Architecture's URBANbuild Project

In this phase, architectural drawings and models of homes designed for specific neighborhoods in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast were on display. This exhibition was presented in collaboration with the Tulane School of Architecture with support from Johnson Controls.

This exhibition featured four Tulane School of Architecture student designs and models providing quality affordable housing to traditionally underserved communities, creating solutions to rehabilitate and revitalize areas of the city historically dominated by blight and abandonment.

The first of four houses is currently being built by TSA students in one of the oldest historical neighborhoods in the country, the Treme. One URBANbuild project will be constructed each semester through the fall of 2007.

Building Solutions Part III

A. Housing Plans
June - October 2006, organized by The Ogden Museum

This invitational exhibit continues the Museum’s ongoing exploration of diverse ways to rebuild the Gulf Coast, and in addition to designs from local architects, it will include neighborhood plans for renewal, and regional planning concepts. Diverse possibilities and options, for urban housing at $90 a square foot and less, and suburban housing at $140 a square foot and less, are featured.

B. MODGUN
By urban planner and artist Robert Tannen, is currently on display in the Museum's plaza through September 24. Inspired by the traditional New Orleans shotgun house, MODGUN is a modular, partially pre-fabricated, 12 x 12 prototype designed to be a flexible and affordable alternative for New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents.

C. Preservation Resource Center
Before Katrina, the PRC's Operation Comeback had renovated five houses and built two new ones in Holy Cross neighborhood, as well as several in the Irish Channel neighborhood, with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts. Plans and models are on display through September 2006, and are even more appropriate in post-Katrina New Orleans.

This summer, we begin work on five new projects, including two that earned us a "Restore America" grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and HGTV. Also in Holy Cross, the PRC and National Trust are partnering on eight "Home Again! New Orleans" projects to help bring residents back

D. Tulane URBANbuild
An ongoing exploration of the Tulane URBANbuild project in partnership with Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans and Project Home Again focused on the selected design and current building project in the historic Treme neighborhood.

E. Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans
Sponsored by Global Green USA and Brad Pitt

This design competition provides an opportunity for talented architects, urban planners, designers, ecologists and students to put forwards a creative yet practical vision for the green rebuilding of New Orleans. Brad Pitt will be a juror among others.

The historic Holy Cross Neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward is the focus of Stage 1 of the competition. In Stage 1, participants were asked to provide a sustainable urban design that focuses on a green, healthy multi-family building with a community center and single-family housing. Participants were asked to achieve several sustainable design and green building goals, including net-zero energy goals (e.g., meeting all energy needs for buildings on the site through passive and active strategies).

In Stage II, finalists identified from the first round will draw on their submissions from Stage I, working with local architects and community groups, to create a plan for selected areas in different neighborhoods of the city. They will design single-family housing and a community facility. Competitors are also challenged to develop innovative architectural and planning solutions that draw from the rich design heritage of New Orleans.

BUILDING SOLUTIONS: The Evaluation Phase
Spring 2007, Organized by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art

This phase of the ongoing Building Solutions series will update and evaluate what projects were, and were not, implemented, their level of success, how federal monies were utilized to assist the New Orleans rebuilding effort, and the probable direction New Orleans will advance in the second year post-Katrina.