LSU Architecture Team’s Post-Katrina Project Revived Community; Inspired Future Response Efforts
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August 2005, a team of LSU School of Architecture students and New Orleans residents began building new homes in the Lower Ninth Ward, working together to start the long process of rebuilding the storm-ravaged Crescent City.
The post-Katrina project was a joint effort between two studios for the design and construction of three houses in the Ninth Ward, a neighborhood infamously devastated by the levee failures during the storm.
The first LSU School of Architecture studio designed the two houses in the spring of 2006, and in the fall of 2006 a second studio worked on the construction effort in partnership with local community members.
“This was my first experience in construction, and a warm memory from my undergraduate studies in a time that was otherwise filled with stress and grief following the aftermath of the storm,” said Jared de Jonge, who was a fourth-year architecture student that year. He is now Director of Design Technology at Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston.
“For the better part of the semester, instead of traditional studio, groups of students carpooled to New Orleans (as early as 5 a.m.!), helping with the contractor construction and supervision to build everything up from the friction piles of the foundation lifting the ground floor to the framing and installation of windows, roof members, drywall, insulation, vapor membranes, painting, you name it. We even made friends with subcontractors along the way, gaining insight into how job sites are run from the build side,” he said.
“It was an incredibly rewarding, and slightly surreal experience. We were among the first to erect any new structures in the neighborhood, while all around us we were surrounded by absolute devastation.
At the time it was questionable if the neighborhood would come back at all, but there we were, lighting the way.
“This was an early lesson in my adult life about the value of resilience and seeking opportunities outside of my comfort zone, and those are values that have guided me in my career to this day. I’m grateful for Marsha Cuddeback’s mentorship and the LSU School of Architecture that pushed me to have the curiosity and drive to be successful beyond academia.”
