Music and Cats

When I arrived home this evening, I found a new comment on my post - now almost two months old - about houses in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood. The commenter was a New Orleanian whom I’ve never met. He left no URL, so I assume that he’s not a blogger. How had he found my little corner of the blogosphere? By googling “s frederick starr bywater.” (I’d included Mr. Starr’s NYT article about shotgun houses in the post.)

I haven’t been writing much about the New Orleans and the Gulf Coast recently, as I haven’t been able to find much about what’s going on in the residential neighborhoods (rather than at high-profile New Urbanist conclaves), so I was thrilled to read Randy Laumann’s comment:

I am a resident of Bywater, and I am pleased to report that the old neighborhood took no water after the levee break, except on the northern fringe (N. Rampart-St. Claude), where there was water in the street. As Katrina passed over, the strong northeast winds pushed water into the neighborhood, and water did briefly enter some lower houses.

Other than that, the neighborhood is high and dry, despite the misinformation given by the above-featured Frederick Starr, who in the 9/1/05 New York Times declared that his home, the Lombard Plantation, was �under water.� It was not.

In fact, this building sits right on the river, on some of the highest ground in the city. For someone who has written four books about New Orleans, it is odd that Mr. Starr did not know this crucial and obvious fact about the city: the land near the river is above sea level.

For those not from here, Bywater is just a handful of blocks downriver from the French Quarter. Bywater is the old, original 9th Ward, but it is only a small part of what grew to become the 9th Ward. The area that was �under 14 feet of water� (Starr) was the Lower 9th Ward, which is across the Industrial Canal from Bywater.

Bywater�s housing stock is still there, a little wind-whipped but otherwise intrepid and solid, almost as pretty as the pictures above. And the people are back, too � my block is as full today as it was before the storm.

I’m glad to hear from someone who lives there that the Bywater’s houses weathered the hurricane relatively well; sadly, that was not the case in all of the area’s historic neighborhoods.

Fortunately, there are some positive steps being taken both to repair damaged housing stock and to rebuild in ways that are sensitive to existing neighborhoods. Architecture for Humanity’s Hurricane Katrina page describes the Shotgun Project, a joint effort of the Heritage Conservation Network, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, the Preservation Resource Council of New Orleans, Architectural Record, the Tulane University, the University of Minnesota, Architecture for Humanity and others:

The first aspect of the program involves one or more hands-on building conservation workshops to be held at damaged “shotgun” houses. Conservation experts will teach attendees, including local residents and volunteers from other areas, skills needed in preserving and restoring historic houses that have been damaged. The emphasis will be on preserving neighborhoods by saving as many of their historic structures as possible in order to retain the historic fabric and visual character that helps maintain a sense of community. (Note: The Heritage Conservation Network will be holding these workshops in January, at several houses in New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, MS. Workshops are open to the public. I wish I could go.)

Many homes were damaged beyond repair or destroyed, and the second aspect of the program will focus on new homes that need to be built. This phase, sponsored by Architectural Record and led by Tulane University, the University of Minnesota and Architecture for Humanity � Minnesota, will be a design competition that challenges designers to create a Shotgun Style Residence that retains the design characteristics of the vernacular “shotgun style” and at the same time provides for the needs of a modern family as well as incorporating updated building codes. It is hoped that the selected design(s) for housing will be used in re-building neighborhoods affected by the hurricanes. (Note: Entry forms for the design competition will be available tomorrow.)

The third component of the project involves assistance, in the form of training and workshops, to help homeowners wade through the paperwork regarding insurance, disaster assistance and personal financial matters. This aspect includes assisting individuals in finding financing needed to either repair or rebuild their home. This component of the project will culminate in a design/build project informed by the outcome of the competition and based on residents’ needs and aspirations.

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