Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina.

IJPP ­ Italian Journal of Planning Practice 1Vol. III, issue 1 ­ 2013

Paola Branciaroli

ISSN: 2239­267X

PhD in Architecture and Urban Planning
paola.branciaroli@gmail.com
Università G. d’Annunzio Chieti­Pescara

ABSTRACT
The article, that represents the outcome of an integration among a
study of recent literature and an on­site enquiry realized at the end of
the 2010 at the University of New Orleans and at the Tulane
University, reviews the plans and actions for the reconstruction of
New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The aim is to demonstrate that,
though the natural disaster has inflicted tension to city fabric, these
projects, analyzing the economic and social contexts, have constituted
an opportunity to provide a spread of urban quality and community
aggregation, both eliminating present inequities and strengthening the
cultural identity and the relationships with the public spaces of
everyday life.

Plans and projects as instruments for urban and social
revitalization.



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INTRODUCTION
Hurricane Katrina, the third strongest hurricane that reached the coasts of
the United States, formed on 23 August 2005, hit the Gulf of Mexico
between 29 and 31 of the same month covering an area of about 240,000
square kilometers and producing the worst economic disaster in the history
of the nation. The hardest stricken area and flooded for 80%, due to the
failure of the levees of the Mississippi River, was New Orleans, the most
European city of the United States, with an ancient history and vernacular
culture and with artistic and organizational expressions important for
community development, but also with a distressing social divide,
accentuated by the disaster. This situation, in fact, was not generated only by
the absence of risk prevention or shortcomings of civil protection, but
mainly by the discrimination of low­income populations, not addressed by
urban planning. To demonstrate this, the slums, made up mainly of black
families, had been built below sea level and were submerged by water.
The American myth of equity, among races and social classes, collapses, exploding
in front of the eyes of all, in the events of New Orleans.1

The debate on the reconstruction of the city has indicated the possible
recovery methods characterized by two related but distinct tensions: speed
and reflection2 or the assessments of professionals and residents about
programme priorities. These tensions, accompanied by an unexpected lack
of confidence of inhabitants in the government and in the technicians and by
the absence of a single organization able to guide the planning process, have
slowed the development of an overall revival strategy. Within the climate of
extreme uncertainty and dissatisfaction, the design of public space has been
the instrument to critically interpret the physical and social context and the
opportunity to eliminate vulnerabilities and inequities, simultaneously
providing a spread of urban quality and community aggregation. The article

Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

CRP, Cornell University, 2006.1
Olshansky, 2006.2



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will review and interpret public space proposals set out within the Plans for
Reconstruction and experiments conducted in single devastated areas, to
demonstrate their key role in both urban and neighborhood scale.
1. RECONSTRUCTION PLANS FOR REGENERATION OF THE AREA
Defining the agenda for regeneration, the various Plans for Reconstruction
that followed the hurricane up to now have been the result of compromise,
albeit in different modes and measures, between the will of local
government and the needs of the community which, despite being largely
delocalized, was informed through websites and involved by means of
surveys and meetings. Already analyzed at the territorial level3, they will be
here closely examined with respect to the public space project.
The Bring New Orleans Back (BNOB) Plan has provided, just a month after
the tragic event, the first overarching framework for the city rebuilding and
was elaborated by the BNOB Commission that divided its work among
several committees focused on city planning, infrastructure, culture,
education, health and social services, economic development and
government effectiveness. Among them, led by a BNOBC member and
supported by volunteers, the City Planning Committee was regarded as the
most important one and further divided into six subcommittees on land use,
housing, infrastructure, historic preservation, sustainability and urban
design. It aimed to form a socially equitable, environmentally safe and
economically advanced community. The purpose was not the reconstruction
of the original situation, characterized by persistent poverty for a third of the
African­American population, and that would have risked the depopulation
of the city, but a more vibrant vision able to create better life expectancy and
to ensure desirable neighborhoods. These were to be enriched with parks
and open spaces, public facilities and services and had to be planned with
their citizens and connected to the region, preserving their heritage of
culture, landscape and architecture, thus attracting returning inhabitants and
new citizens. An ecological infrastructures system favoured people
movements and the space for meeting and socializing, integrating green

Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Wagner, 2006; Nelson et al., 2007; Olshansky et al., 2008.3



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areas chosen with citizens’ agreement. Moreover, if new roads had to be
constructed or the damaged ones repaired, they were to be complemented
with neutral grounds, large green zones that during the day would be used as
the right­of­way for transit and at night they would have become public
spaces for activities (fig.1).

Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 1 – Bring New Orleans Back Plan _Vision

Unfortunately, after several months of activities, since the BNOBC had not
funding source, it effectively came to a halt.
A few months after the previous Plan, the Mayor C. Ray Nagin, the City
Council and the City Planning Commission promoted the New Orleans
Neighborhoods Rebuilding Plan or Lambert Plan to meet the recovery needs
of the individual flooded neighborhoods with the objective of bringing them
back to the condition ex ante the hurricane, ensuring rebuilding of
infrastructure and business and reopening of school facilities. The project
was managed by Lambert and Sheila Danzey’s firm, SHEDO, which
dispatched seven neighborhood planning consultants to 49 flooded
neighborhoods in 10 of the city’s districts. Among them, the district Five4
Plan is representative of the revitalization process, with the participation of
a strong community and the New Orleans University components because of

It includes the neighborhoods of City Park, Country Club Gardens, Lakeshore, Lake Vista,4
Lakeview, Lakewood e Parkview.



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 2 – New Orleans Neighborhoods Rebuilding Plan or Lambert Plan _ Project of a
neighborhood public space

the campus location nearby. It had to follow urban plan and organization of
the existing neighborhoods, retaining their individual uniqueness and
historic qualities, but enhancing their residential, commercial and civic areas
and the infrastructure system, providing attractive opportunities and
community centers. Moreover it had to implement beautiful parks and
squares not only to address the damage caused by the Hurricane, but also to
turn them into the community assets that these public spaces were or could
become, so advocating social reconstruction too (fig.2). Indeed several
factors shoved that this district would have been repopulated at an
increasingly faster rate as time progressed: the community faith and the
continuous commitment of the residents; pre­Hurricane indicators of home
ownership, income distribution and property values that provided a clear
indication of the place attractiveness; homeowners’ economic assistance
programmes5 that would have been a catalyst for private reconstruction; the
district geographical position linked to the city’s traditional urban grid and
the major expressway access routes serving the region.

Louisiana’s Recovery Authority Road Home Program and FEMA’s Increased Cost of Construction5
financial grants program for mitigation.



IJPP ­ Italian Journal of Planning Practice 6Vol. III, issue 1 ­ 2013

Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 3 – Unified New Orleans Plan _ Project of a collective space between neighborhoods

Anyway, even if this Plan gave a highly valuable contribution at the
neighborhood level and helped to empower residents in the rebuilding effort, by
early November 2006, it ended because Lambert and the City Council did not
agree to subsume it under the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP). This latter,
always established by Mayor C. Ray Nagin, the City Council and the City
Planning Commission, recognized the goals of the Lambert Plan, but provided
a more comprehensive parishwide plan: it aimed to foreshadow a safer city
with greater economic opportunities and a higher quality of life through the
provision of accessible collective spaces, green areas and pedestrian zones, to
transform neighborhood parks and playgrounds into public amenities, both to
provide recreational facilities for the residents and to revitalize the surrounding
community, and to preserve the culture and the historical architecture, with a
view to a possible increase in local tourism (fig.3).

Twenty­two months after Katrina, this Plan was approved but not adopted.
Finally, on August 2010, the City Council, after extensive public
participation and the unanimous approval of the City Planning Commission,
officially adopted the Plan for the 21st Century: New Orleans 2030, the
Masterplan, based on the previous plans. It recognizes New Orleans’ many
identities and aims to carry the city into the future, providing vibrant
neighborhoods and lively commercial districts able to facilitate socialization,



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 4 – Plan for the 21st Century: New Orleans 2030 _ Project of a public space used as
a farmer's market

designed by integrating public spaces, parks and historic streets with
creativity traditions. It proposes areas and tree­lined streets to promote not
only walking but also animated farmers markets, arts festivals and
performance venues with spin­offs for other parts of the country (fig.4).
Much still remains to be done and many improvements are needed for about
four or five years, but this planning phase has been fundamental to lay the
foundation for new opportunities, making New Orleans a leading world city
and a sustainable community building an exciting future for all its residents,
all the while continuing to preserve and nurture the physical and cultural
legacy of the past.

2. PROJECTS IN DISASTER AREAS FOR THE COMMUNITY REVIVAL
In parallel with the Reconstruction Plans, the implementation of individual
projects in the areas most affected by Hurricane highlights the role of
collective spaces both as places shared by the different ethnic, cultural and
religious background communities, and as temporary and extemporary
spaces for art and performance activities. In this perspective, participatory
design methods were explored, together with the activation of applied
courses, which provided opportunities for faculty, students and architects to



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

approach the reconstruction problems and participate in the life of the city.
Over fifty projects for the redevelopment of public and private spaces within
areas struck by Hurricane Katrina were completed by the Tulane City Center
(TCC), a not­for­profit organization inside the Tulane School of Architecture
conceived in the 2004 but officially come into being during the tumultuous
months after the Hurricane when the importance of social engagement
became ever more pressing. Under the leadership of the former Director
Scott Bernhard6, Associate Director Dan Etheridge and Senior Program
Coordinator Emilie Taylor, the TCC has seen tremendous growth with its
involvement in community outreach under Kenneth Schwartz, new Dean of
the School of Architecture. These projects, that ranged in scale from small
mobile neighborhood communication devices to urban scale planning
processes, aimed to transform abandoned spaces into interconnected social
and ecological places where people could meet, discuss and share
experiences, (re)building neighbourly relations and restoring an urban way
of life lost due to the disaster. Along with their primary collaborator the
Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, the TCC enjoyed a
broad range of partnerships with numerous off­campus community­based
organizations and each of them created occasions for faculty and students to
engage real issues in the society.
These projects did not only implement the physical infrastructure but created
also the economic infrastructure and the social and cultural relationships
throughout the city. This kind of engagement of the architecture to work
with non­traditional and unknown clients, has allowed them to not compete
with the profession and to broaden the relevance and value of actions
relating to spatial organization.
Among the realized projects, the Viet Village Cooperative urban farm,
winner of the Professional Award of the American Society of Landscape
Architects in 2008, is particularly significant. It was carried out in the
Vietnamese neighborhood Village de l'Est in agreement with the Mary
Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation which restores
urban farms and agricultural markets destroyed by the floodwaters of
Hurricane Katrina. The community gardens were their main economic and

He was the director until 2012 while now the director is Maurice Cox.6



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 5 – Tulane City Center, Viet Village Cooperative urban farm _ Render

cultural activity since the migration of the Vietnamese population in the
1970’s. They produced typical food not readily available in the region and
were used by the growers to feed their families and gave birth to informal
agricultural markets to sell the surplus production. The project intends
therefore to recover a fundamental ethnic aspect of their lifestyle
formalizing activities in a single site in order to maximize the productivity
and create welcoming public spaces for residents, able to encourage the
involvement of children, parents and grandparents in the same activities and
allowing traditional practices of their culture to be passed on. The
construction of a central meeting place for the largest Vietnamese
community in the Gulf Coast and of areas for sports represents the intention
for the farm to act as a social centre, so that it has become the focal point for
the reconstruction of New Orleans East and for local tourism (fig.5).

Developed in the Hollygrove neighborhood with the participation of the
Carrollton Hollygrove Community development corporation and the New
Orleans Food and Farm network two more projects have been built after the
hurricane had destroyed most of the crop and dispersed the population.
Hollygrove Greenline transforms the great infrastructural corridor that
divides the neighborhood, unused since the beginning of the century and by
then inaccessible, into an attractive and productive public space for social
activities and urban farming, redeveloping the site as a livable community. In



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 6 – Tulane City Center, Hollygrove Greenline _ Render

the design process, residents and neighborhood organizations were actively
involved as beneficiaries of the project, helping to guarantee the final result.
A survey within an information pamphlet and a community engagement map
established the needs of the people regarding the use of that space, in order
to arrive at a shared drawing (fig.6).

Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm stimulates the local economy by
providing locally grown, affordable fresh produce and green jobs
certification programmes in urban agriculture. It promotes healthy lifestyles
and contributes significantly to the neighborhood revitalization as a catalyst
for future citywide innovations. It implements the existing infrastructures
and services using ecological equipment including a rainwater collection
system, solar panels and green roofs. A pavilion in front of this space is an
example of environmental, economic and social conscious architecture: it
uses either natural or recycled materials, minimizes construction waste and
filters rainwater to irrigate the training gardens; it is run by faculty members
and students of the Tulane School of Architecture with simple construction
techniques and cost effective materials; it offers a shaded and
multifunctional place, made inviting to residents via an arbor connected with
the road (fig.7). Mobile modular units facilitate communication amongst the
neighborhood inhabitants by creating flexible areas used as work, storage
and teaching spaces. The project, built in phases, reached a great success as
the frequent meetings between the Tulane City Center, activist societies,
future store operators and partners developed an understanding of the needs
of the neighbourhood, meeting the emerging demands.



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Figure 7 – Tulane City Center, Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm _ Arbor connected
with the road | Photo of the author
Another important realized example is the Hope Haven Campus that,
partnered with Catholic Charities Archdioceses, aims to reactivate the Campus
itself, integrating three programmes. A care centre provides temporary shelter
for homeless people by helping them to reintegrate in society. A restaurant
serves as a social entrepreneurship business model by offering job skills for at
risk youth, while an urban farm develops a sustainable biodiversity farming
model to promote initiatives to produce and purchase local products. They act
as a collaborative platform for community activities (herb farm, market,
seating, learning ­ teaching) as they are in continuous interaction with visitors,
workers and people involved in the structure (fig.8).

Figure 8 – Tulane City Center, Hope Haven Campus _ Photomontage



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Quite different is the Project Sprout, a Pilot Project that, partnered with the
New Orleans Food and Farm Network and the New Orleans Redevelopment
Authority Limitless Vistas, consist in a strategy for productive stabilization
that transforms many marginal properties devastated by the flooding into
nodes of urban and social redevelopment. Bio­energy gardens, taking
advantage of the sunflowers that remediate soil, produce bio­fuel, provide
green­collar job training and create public meeting spaces (fig.9).

Figure 9 – Tulane City Center, Project Sprout _ Bio­energy gardens

The Abandoned contentious border zones7 is, on the contrary, a simple
proposal but represent for the Concordia Architects8 the opportunity to
transform the areas devastated by the hurricane and located at a critical
intersection of historically and culturally rich communities in socially
dynamic and physically accessible to everybody urban spaces (fig.10). The
project reshapes the borderland with ruptures and undulations so obtaining
underground spaces in which it is possible to develop Border food programs
that include markets, urban agriculture forms, culinary learning center and
informal activities supervision. The markets provide a sociopolitical
infrastructure that attracts residents and eliminates social barriers,
transforming contested sites into border­node hybrids, where a diverse yet
high quality culture of food becomes a shared value (fig.11).

Areas close to the train tracks, the highway and industrial parks.7
Community centered planning + design.8



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

Figure 10 – Concordia Architects, Abandoned contentious border zone turned into a dynamic
socially space in which Ruffins Kermit performs _ Photomontage

Urban agriculture promotes ecologically integrated communities and healthy
lifestyles, creating spaces where people can grow their products and
participate in the site design. The learning culinary centre offers classes
related to planting, harvesting and preparing food. Spatial flexibility helps
support a wide range of events, from theoretical teaching activities to
practical demonstrations during the gastronomic events. A shaded area will
be used in the Carnival Season by means of festivals and jazz funeral
promenade9 encouraging interaction and social equality.
In the past, the construction of the U.S. Interstate 10 in 1965 had destroyed
the famous second line10 known for processions and funeral parades. The
Afro­American Community, trying to reclaim the thoroughfare for the Zulu
parades and other festivities, had protested weaving brightly colored strings

They combine the traditional funeral procession with the parades of wind instruments bands.9
Brass bands traditional parade. The main line is made up of the city circle members. The second line10

simply follows the band to listen to music.

Figure 11 – Concordia Architects, Abandoned contentious border zone used as a market _
Photomontage



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Branciaroli ­ Public spaces in New Orleans post­Katrina

CONCLUSIONS
Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, more than the 80 percent of the
residents is back home and New Orleans, thanks to the good quality of
reconstruction, within a few years has attracted investment and new
residents, moving from a traditional economy, mostly based on agriculture,
to be one of the reference centers for the American society.
Indeed some relevant conclusions can be drawn from these experiences.
The Reconstruction Plans have shown how important the design of safe
public spaces is for the urban, social and economic regeneration process.
Parks, open spaces, recreational activities and public services are, as well as
in Europe, the necessary conditions for the recovery of neighborhoods and
key components for life in the community.
The projects carried out by the Tulane City Center and by the Concordia
Architects have then focused on the need for flexible and relational spaces
that combine land use with the expressions of the community to become
fulcrums of urban and social renaissance. Used by residents to create
occasions of public life and by artists to set up workshops and laboratories,
the appointed areas has found the maximum strength in the specific

Figure 12 – Zulu Parade over the U.S. Interstate 10 _ Photomontage

over the highway (fig.12).
The underutilized border, reactivated through these progressive rebuilding
strategies, could become the backbone of the city creating a public space
integrated with the coexistence of different ethnic cultures.



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characteristics of the ethnic groups, in the recovery of traditions and in the
search for ecologically integrated models, with benefits in the long term and
throughout the territory.
At the end of this collection of experiences after Hurricane Katrina, it is
possible to see how the tension suffered by the city fabric has been
sublimated into organizational and propulsive opportunities for all the
phenomena of economic development and social aggregation to ensure the
strengthening of cultural identity.
In this perspective architectural landmarks, such as the Superdome11, has
played a central role. Used as a shelter after the hurricane and restored in
time to start the fall season of Football, it allowed recovering social
continuity, enhancing aesthetic creativity and ensuring progress.

New Orleans stadium.11



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REFERENCES

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BROOKS J. (2005), Charting the course for rebuilding a great American City: an
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BULLARD R. and WRIGHT B. (2008), "Race, place, and environmental justice
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COLTEN C. (2005), An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature.
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FORD K. (2010), The trouble with city planning. What New Orleans can teach us.
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LAWRENCE V. and CAMPANELLA T. (2005), The Resilient City. How Modern
Cities Recover from Disaster. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

MURDOCK J. (2007), "Bingler wants citizens to power the planning and rebuilding
effort", in Architectural Record195­6.

NELSON M., EHRENFEUCHT R. and LASKA S. (2007), "Planning, Plans, and
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OLSHANSKY R.B. et al (2008)," Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans", in
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Miccadei, Piacentini ­ The role of knowledge in the prevention of natural hazards



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OLSHANSKY R.B. and JOHNSON L. (2010), Clear as Mud: Planning for the
Rebuilding of New Orleans. Chicago/Washington: American Planning
Association Press.

ROWLEY K. (2008), The role of Community rebuilding plans in the Hurrican
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SAMUELS L.C. (2009), "Infrastructural Optimism", in Places, 21­1.
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after Hurricane Katrina. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.
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ON LINE REFERENCES
Community centered planning + design

www.concordia.com
Disaster Recovery Resources

www.disasterrecoveryresources.net
Duany Plater ­ Zyberk & Company

www.dpz.com
En Vision Studio

www.envision­studio.org
Goody Clancy

www.goodyclancy.com
New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan

www.nolanrp.com
Neighborhoods Partnership Network

www.npnnola.com
New Orleans Plan Database

www.nolaplans.com
New Orleans under Reconstruction: the crisis of Planning

www.project­neworleans.org/conference.html

Miccadei, Piacentini ­ The role of knowledge in the prevention of natural hazards