Rabouin High School (LAND BANKED by SFMPOP)

Rabouin High School, E.A. Christy, architect, 1936, photo: Mara Saxer. Originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

What is land banking? In the case of the School Facilities Plan for Orleans Parish, the term has not been adequately defined. Generally, a "land bank" is the land that a builder or developer has that is available for development.* Over fifty school facilities are slated for "land banking" in the plan, although the fate of the facilities is not specified, some may be sold to developers for adaptive reuse, others may be demolished. What is the fate of Rabouin? McMain? Audubon Charter Extension? Green? McDonogh City Park? All of these schools (and more) are slated to close in later phases of the plan. Will they be demolished? Converted into condos? Why do the planners want to close these schools?

Tonight's the night. The first of only two public meetings on the plan will be held Thursday 9.18.08 at 5:30 pm at McDonogh #35 Auditorium, 1331 Kerlerec Street. The public comment period has been extended to October 1, the date of the second and final public meeting.

email comments to: masterplan@rsdla.net

Eleanor McMain High School (THREATENED)

Eleanore McMain Secondary School, originally uploaded by anthonyturducken.
5712 South Claiborne, E.A. Christy, architect, 1930

At the Orleans Parish School Board meeting last week, Una Anderson questioned the logic of a plan which would close both Cohen and McMain High Schools uptown.

"That's all of Uptown without a single high school except for Lusher High, " she said.

The School Facilities Plan calls for shrinking the number of high school sites, but increasing the size of the new campuses. The plan aims for sites of at least 10 acres for high schools.

School Facilities Master Plan:
Currently: Open (7th to 12th).
Phase 1 proposal: Will close in 2012
New location undetermined; possible location is site of renovated Booker T. Washington.

To comment on the school plan email: masterplan@rsdla.net

RSD analysis map :: layer one :: the land banked

RSD analysis map :: layer one, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Sixty-six properties. Some are open. Some are closed. Some are already demolished. None are projected to be viable school facilities in the future, according to the most recent and nearly final School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish.

The plan was announced in the Times-Picayune Sunday edition. The story included a map of the new construction or renovation of twenty-eight schools in the first phase (approximately five years). A facing layout listed the other ninety-seven facilities that will not be part of the first phase of this building boom. Of these, thirty-one are slated for future renovation, though no funds are secured for those schools. Unless the other sixty-six are "land banked."

Land banking can mean many things, most usually selling the building or demolishing the building and selling the land. Some of the sixty-six land banked properties are actually slated for new construction in "future phases", also unfunded. Architects of these potentially land-banked schools include E. A. Christy, Charles Colbert, Curtis and Davis, Moise Goldstein, and Henry Howard. One of Christy's facilities, the Lockett School has already been demolished, though there are no plans for a New School until "future phases" of the plan, i.e. sometime in the next thirty years.

The plan will be presented to the Orleans Parish School Board Tuesday 8.19.08 at 5 p.m. at McDonogh #35 High School, 1331 Kerlerec Street.

Source of data: Times-Picayune 8.17.08 print edition, page A-11.
Google Map by Francine Stock

UPDATE 8.22.08 This map has been posted to the Save Our Schools New Orleans site.