Green Space Map, originally uploaded by Karen Apricot New Orleans.
I can’t believe I kind of forgot about the green dot map. Karen Gadbois emailed it to me Saturday morning and suggested we look into it to help tell our story at netSquared.
The "green dot plan" was generated by the Urban Land Institute for the Mayor’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission. It was released in January 2006.* The six big green dots: “approximate areas expected to become green space.”
This is the plan that launched a thousand ships, an armada of civic pride and activism. It was a plan that united us to fight against it. I started thinking about how this map could tell the stories of the People under those dots. How could it tell a story of the Buildings? The Neighborhoods? The Cornerstones? We can use this map against itself to tell the story of our defense of New Orleans. In this mashup, we can integrate citizen-created content into those green dots. Of course, we would also need to tell the story of the creation of that map. The story of Czar Canizaro and the Urban Land Institute. And we would need to actually layer this plan over a real map and discover the actual boundaries of those seemingly arbitrary dots.
It’s interesting on another level as well. Up to now, we have been thinking of the stories that get told by the data. This reverses the process as it starts with a historic map from the recent past. Through our mashup, the map becomes a virtual archive of its own significance. a meta-map. very cool.
* Note: The green dot map is missing from the Times-Picayune graphics archive online. The archive has no graphics from January 2006. Original plan: 2005. November 29. Urban Land Institute's Rebuilding Plan.
The links below are only abstracts. The Times-Picayune makes one subscribe online to read the full articles. There are many more listings on the Urban Land Institute's plan in the paid archive. I only posted a few abstracts here.
2006. January 11.
4 MONTHS TO DECIDE ; Nagin panel says hardest hit areas must prove viability city's footprint may shrink; full buyouts proposed for those forced to move. New housing to be developed in vast swaths of New Orleans' higher groundNagin panel would restrict rebuildingNeighborhoods would have 4 months to prove viability. by Frank Donze and Gordon
2006. March 19.
Land use debate recalls St. Thomas controversy ; Canizaro had role in creating River Garden by Brian Thevenot.
2007. April 1.
Will plan lift the Curse of the Green Dot? by Stephanie Grace
3 comments:
Hello, I was unable to find an email address on the blog, so I figured leaving a comment would be a good way to get in touch. I am absolutely thrilled by this blog, I've been reading for awhile and I am thankful that there are many people in New Orleans concerned about mid-century and modern architecture. I was wondering if any of you were planning on creating an entry about City Hall. I think we've all heard the now-dead (?) rumors about it being demolished to make way for a bigger office for our mayor, but I would love to hear any opinions the contributors have about the building, and it's status in New Orleans.
Much appreciated,
Alicia
Alicia,
Thank you so much for writing. I've updated my profile to display my contact information.
This blog was started in an effort to document the process of documenting modernism in New Orleans. Megan Lubaszka, a student in my class, Regional Modernism: The New Orleans Archives, wrote a brilliant paper on the history of the Civic Center. I'm going to work with her on sharing some of that info through the blog.
Francine Stock, Tulane School of Architecture
hey a lustron modular home on 4940 St Roch Avenue may be in danger of being demolished. There are only 4 of these in the metro area. These are very important modern pieces of architecture.
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