Rehabilitating Homes and Hope

School of Architecture Students and Faculty Contribute to Gulf Coast Relief Efforts

by C. Thomas Hogge
March 17, 2006

As most university students were preparing for the start of the spring semester, a group of undergraduate students from the School of Architecture with a graduate student from the School of Engineering and Applied Science were helping with the ongoing post-Katrina clean-up in greater New Orleans.

Lecturer and Assistant to the Chair of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Elizabeth Roettger (BSArch’97, MArch’00) organized the independent trip in part to help students understand the political, physical and cultural conditions of a recovering New Orleans. She was joined by her husband, Bob Pineo (BSArch’96, MArch’00), who shared his building expertise with the students at various points during the week.

The students' contributions began in November on Charlottesville’s downtown mall. Working with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, several of the students and others helped construct wall panels planned for new construction in Biloxi, Mississippi as part of Operation Home Delivery - informally, the "home-in-a-box" project.

On January 7, the team convened in Slidell, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans. But while the students largely expected to continue their work building homes with Habitat along the Gulf Coast, after arriving in the region they quickly realized more basic assistance was needed.

Fourth-year undergraduate architecture student Astrid Chastka, who enlisted to gain construction experience, observed that "they don't need architects, they need manual labor." The students spent six days clearing out and gutting homes in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, where new construction awaits an extensive cleanup of debris.

Upon arrival, the team volunteered with the Slidell Habitat for Humanity on the “house in a box” project for a day. Next, the group worked with the Green Project (TGP), a New-Orleans-based non-profit. The students spent a day disentangling lumber, boards, millwork and personal items from early 19th-century homes framed and clad in native heart cypress and pine.

Since 1995, TGP has distributed donated building materials, paints, household tools and equipment, and art materials to the area around its warehouse and store on the edge of Bywater in New Orleans' low-income upper Ninth Ward District. TGP has been active in the manual demolition of destroyed buildings in New Orleans, recovering personal effects and salvaging materials for re-use by hand that would typically be lost in mechanized demolition.

Roettger recalls that debris was piled so densely in some areas that the group was able to do little more in one day than clear pathways to allow access to various piles.

“No Glory – All Gutting”

The day of clearing paths and sorting debris with TGP in Slidell was then followed by several days of demolition and deconstruction in New Orleans. Donning Tyvek suits and respirators, the students joined the Common Ground Collective (CGC) volunteers in gutting historic shotgun houses in the Upper Ninth Ward, stripping walls to framing studs and cleaning mold with an experimental cleanser - vinegar mixed with molasses and various mold-consuming micro-organisms.

CGC, founded by Malik Rahim, a former Black Panther, at his house in September, provides short term relief for victims of hurricane disasters in the gulf coast region, and long term support in rebuilding affected communities in the city.

In a rare opportunity to create amidst the demolition, students designed and built furniture for the CGC’s free health clinic.

At mid-week, the group attended a town meeting with the city planning commission and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, which Roettger describes as "very academic." The discussions "didn't really address anything we experienced on the ground," she said.

The group also witnessed some tense moments between residents and local officials, each wondering who would be held responsible for recovery and rebuilding. Several CGC representatives arrived to protest of the planned razing of houses in the Ninth Ward without the homeowners’ approval.

While emotions ran high in the city, the students were warmly received by local residents anxious to begin rebuilding their lives and communities.

An opportunity to drive along New Orleans' streets and to meet residents who stayed through the hurricanes or who had returned to claim what they were able to salvage also offered a unique and powerful insight into the visceral reality of life in a city that had become, for Chastka and others, a "ghost town."

Students said they felt most effective when in direct contact with homeowners who needed assistance, such as the case of one elderly couple, without insurance, left alone to sort through their devastated home.

The team hosted an open discussion in Campbell Hall shortly after returning, showing images of the destruction and describing their experiences. They shared stories with other students and faculty members who were themselves preparing to make visits to the region to collect information for upcoming studio projects. Many returned from New Orleans with an appreciation for the primacy of preparation and planning in the timeline of rebuilding, and a desire to continue assisting the region in any way possible.

For more photos, maps, and a presentaton of the trip, please see :all GUTTING - no Glory: photos from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast