Broken Promises and Green Space

The Uptown Messenger reported on Tuesday night's meeting to discuss the Recovery School District's amended plans for the Central City, Uptown and Garden District schools. 

There are many important issues at stake. But what immediately caught my eye was that the RSD has removed Hoffman Elementary from the plan entirely, as 'no longer needed'. This is a shocking revelation. 

In 2009 The RSD made a public promise before the City Council and neighborhood representatives to move Hoffman from an unfunded phase (perhaps 6?) to phase one or two. With this promise, the neighborhood changed their position from supporting preservation to demolition, as they desperately wanted a school for their community.

On September 17, 2009 the New Orleans City Council voted to overturn the NCDC decision to deny a demolition permit for Hoffman Elementary School, 2622 S. Prieur Street. Councilwoman Stacy Head expressed regret regarding ordering the demolition of a historic structure. [At the hearing] representatives of the Recovery School District verbally promised to move the Hoffman site up to phase two, and possibly phase one if they can secure the financing. It is tragic that the RSD outright refuses to renovate this structure. The building assessment in the School Facilities Master Plan indicated that it would cost $2.2 million LESS to renovate Hoffman, but they would prefer to start over.

Hoffman Elementary (architect Charles Colbert, 1954) was razed in February of 2010. Fast forward 2011 and now the RSD has determined there will be no school in the Hoffman Triangle. Tragically the neighborhood was not just hoodwinked into supporting demolition in their desperation for a school in their neighborhood, but they also lost a significant modern structure which could have been adapted to serve the community in other ways had it not been demolished.

And then there will be one.

Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center (originally McDonogh 36 Elementary School (1954, Sol Rosenthal and Charles R. Colbert) renovated 2010 by John C. Williams. photograph by Francine Stock

In a field of lost opportunities we have a singular instance of adaptive reuse.  McDonogh 36 Elementary School was the only school from the 1950s not slated for demolition by the School Facilities Master Plan. The school was renovated by architect John C. Williams for a non-profit foundation and re-opened in 2010 as the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center. During renovation the facility was stripped bare to the concrete and steel structure, shedding years of unsympathetic alterations and redundant mechanical systems. 

The form is a fusion of a ‘finger plan’ school with a double galleried plantation house. Mature live oaks inhabit the courtyards between the wings.  Initial concerns that the final product could trend toward the phony colonial were unnecessary. The modernist spirit survived. The renovation includes walls of operable windows and an open air circulation gallery. The new program is brilliant and the renovation reminds us how modern school facilities could be retrofitted to serve the community in new ways if only given the chance.

 

4 :: 3 :: 2 :: 1 :: Carver School Faces Imminent Demolition

Carver High School Auditorium, 3059 Higgins Boulevard, New Orleans, LA (1958, Curtis and Davis, architects). Progressive Architecture First Design Award 1957, New Orleans Nine Most Endangered 2008, Eligible for National Register, Demolition permit: November 1, 2010.  Photo: Francine Stock

In the past two years the mid 20th century modern public school has become an endangered species in New Orleans. Of the city's thirty public schools designed and built in the 1950s, today only four are left standing. Soon only one may remain.

Earlier this week the City of New Orleans issued a demolition permit for the George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School designed by Curtis and Davis, architects. The Helen Sylvania Edwards Elementary School shared many campus facilities with Carver, but has already been demolished. The integration of three schools (elementary, junior and senior high) on a 65 acre campus in the upper ninth ward allowed the schools to share common facilities (cafeteria, kitchen, auditorium) and yet retain age-segregated classroom buildings. The auditorium was also available in the evening for community events. The striking design of the auditorium with its soaring (40 ft high and 200 ft long) parabolic concrete vault and hinged buttresses is truly monumental. The Federal Emergency Management Association determined the Carver auditorium building eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana advocated for the auditorium structure to be retained as part of a new campus plan and suggested that it be adaptively reused as an open air pavilion. Unfortunately, the auditorium will be demolished with the remaining buildings on campus.


The concept of a "school village" was first articulated by architect and planner Charles R. Colbert in 1952 in A Continuous Planning and Building Program, an analysis of existing public school facilities in New Orleans and plans for expansion. The city had not built a single school facility in the 1940s and the population was rapidly expanding. Urban land values in center of the city were twenty times higher than in the newer suburbs. Selecting a site of "ninety beautifully wooded acres, at the edge of urban development, six miles away" from the densely populated center of New Orleans would save six million dollars in land acquisition. Colbert calculated that this savings would support nearly a century of "quality bus transportation." Colbert envisioned the buses as "mobile classrooms." The teachers would travel with the students and with a set of visual aids to extend classroom instruction during the commute to their "semi-rural, college-like campus." Though the mobile classrooms never materialized, Colbert's idea of a "school village" formed the basis of the Carver campus plan designed by Curtis and Davis.


In It Happened by Design, architect Arthur Q. Davis recalled that the firm initially was contracted to design a senior high school, a portion of the site allocated for a junior high to be designed by another firm, and room left over for a future elementary school. Curtis and Davis convinced the school board that it was more economical to develop the three schools as part of an overall campus plan from the beginning. The board approved their plan for a more efficient campus of ten buildings linked by covered walkways. In 1957 the plan of the Carver schools gained national recognition winning both Progressive Architecture's First Design Award and the American Institute of Architects' Best Overall Plan for a School Complex.
 
The 2008 School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish (SFMPOP) called for the demolition of the Carver School suggesting "complete replacement." In fact, the SFMPOP called for the near eradication of the 1950s public schools. The only facility from the era reserved for the future by the SFMPOP  is McDonogh 36 (1954, Sol Rosenthal and Charles R. Colbert). This school has been renovated by John C. Williams and reopened this year as the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center.


DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana successfully nominated Carver and three other schools to the Louisiana Landmarks Most Endangered List in 2008. McDonogh 39 Elementary School (1952, Goldstein, Paham and Labouisse; Freret and Wolf, Curtis and Davis, associate architects) the first modern school in New Orleans was demolished earlier this year without review. McDonogh 39 (later renamed after local civil rights activist Avery Alexander) was in Gentilly and thus outside of the Neighborhood Council District Review Committee. 

FEMA also determined that the classroom buildings at Thomy Lafon Elementary School (1954, Curtis and Davis) and the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School (1955, Charles R. Colbert) were eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The Recovery School District's desire to use public funds to demolish these historic structures triggered a Section 106 consultation in accordance with the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act. This bought these facilities some time during the consultation process, but they are likely to be demolished in the coming year.

Idea: the Shaping Force, Charles R. Colbert, 1987, Pendaya Publications

It Happened by Design, Arthur Q. Davis, 2008, University Press of Mississippi

Thomy Lafon Elementary School

Thomy Lafon Elementary School, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Looking a bit more closely at the plan of the Thomy Lafon School today. Preparing a lecture on case studies and will discuss Lafon in relation to Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye.

The form of the school has been obscured / marred by the unsympathetic addition of those horrible corrugated red hoods. But the plan better illustrates how this school functioned without corridors. The kindergarten wing was accessible by a playful ramp to the upper story. Beyond the kindergarten, classrooms were paired to share a staircase and toilet facilities. Architect Nathaniel C. Curtis described the plan as "the next logical step after the finger plan."* His partner architect Arthur Q. Davis describes the form as "a long, thin classroom wing, gracefully bent to avoid monotony."**

Here the pilotis serve many functions. The elevation of the classroom wing amplifies available play space which also offers shelter from rain and needed shade.This would also keep the classrooms cooler as there is a greater breeze at higher elevation. This is of course an old French Colonial tradition. Finally, the pilotis saved the classrooms from flooding post-Katrina. The Survivors Council fought to re-open the school in 2007, but to no avail. It has remained shuttered. The RSD has no plans for the reuse of the building. However, it could be adapted to serve the Harmony Oaks community as an early childhood center.


* In 1952 the first modern school was built in New Orleans, designed by Curtis and Davis. It was originally known as McDonogh 39 (later renamed Avery Alexander School) and followed a finger school plan with a series courtyards between the wings. School Facilities Plan called for its demolition. It was on the Louisiana Landmark's New Orleans Nine Most Endangered list in 2009, along with Lafon, Wheatley and Carver. Quote is from Talk About Architecture, Heard, Lemann and Klingman, 1993

** It Happened by Design, Arthur Q. Davis, 2009

Hoffman Elementary (yes we can!)

Hoffman Elementary (THREATENED), Section showing sun control and ventilation. 2622 Prieur Street, New Orleans, LA. Sol Rosenthal and Charles Colbert, architects, 1948-1954. Image source = Idea: The Shaping Force. SFMPOP Preliminary assessment: "complete replacement"
originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

While it's raining outside, the sun is shining on Hoffman Elementary and the residents of the Hoffman Triangle neighborhood. The Recovery School District has been seeking a demolition permit for Hoffman Elementary, even though the RSD currently does not have funds to rebuild a school on that site.

Yesterday the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee (NCDC) voted to DENY the RSD a demolition permit for Hoffman. The Hoffman structure is well-designed for our extreme climate and could definitely be adapted with contemporary advances in glazing and given a new life. Need inspiration? Look no further. A zeitgeist school design exists in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Munkegaard's School was designed by architect Arne Jacobsen 1952-1956. The Danes have taken good care of the school and it is still in use and fresh as the day it was born.

Thank you NCDC for returning a bit of faith in good government to this nearly weary warrior.

Comments on Wheatley coming soon...

FEMA 106 public comment period on the Schools

Thomy Lafon Elementary School (THREATENED), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The fifteen day FEMA 106 public comment period on the schools affected by the School Facilities Master Plan of Orleans Parish begins December 2, 2008.

The Master Plan was approved by the OPSB and BESE last month. Mid-century modern school sites which are slated for landbanking or demolition include the four recognized by Louisiana Landmarks Most Endangered list: Phillis Wheatley Elementary, Thomy Lafon Elementary, Avery Alexander Elementary and Carver High School.

LANDBANKED by the RSD

Audubon Charter Extension, originally uploaded by New Orleans Lady.

THANKS TO KAREN AND WAYNE FOR THE EMAILS. SEND IN YOUR COMMENTS PEOPLE! MASTERPLAN@RSDLA.NET

The Recovery School District (RSD) has requested written comments to their recently issued master plan “A Blueprint: Building 21st Century Schools for New Orleans.” While the master plan establishes important goals for the re-visioning of the public school system, we believe that important issues regarding urban planning, sustainability, and historic preservation are not being addressed.

The deadline for comments is tomorrow, October 1st, and we are urging everyone to let the RSD know that these issues are important for our community, our organization, and for establishing an approach towards adapting existing buildings to address the needs of individual neighborhoods. The email address to which you may send your comment is:
masterplan@rsdla.net

Of utmost concern is that over 56 schools are threatened with closure or demolition. While we are not proposing a mandate to save every school building under threat, we are greatly concerned that there is no specific plan for utilizing these buildings, and we feel that the demolition of historic buildings is not appropriate.

The following three statements are intended for you to utilize in your communication with the RSD. Feel free to use any of these statements to supplement your position or simply cut and paste one of these into your letter. The important issue here is to let the RSD know that we want more specific plans for these sites and that we want to preserve our culture and history that is embodied in these buildings.


PRIMARY ISSUES:

1. Landbanking as concerns responsible city planning:

There are over 56 sites within the plan currently proposed for demolition and/or landbanking in New Orleans. Many of these sites currently exist in what are already heavily blighted conditions without proper planning or address for solutions for the sites. Without an idea or plan in place for what might be or could be on these sites, there is a high possibility that these properties will simply exists as empty, gated lots without purpose or programming for what could be many years. Some of these demolitions have replacement buildings planned, some will simply be boarded up, and those that are demolished will have the lots seeded and fenced off, waiting for the prospect of development sometime in the future. With a rash of demolition activities pending throughout the city, it is imperative that as a community, we step back and evaluate the long-term loss of the culture, diversity and history that these structures represent before they are torn down and hauled to the landfill.

It is understood, not only from current conditions in the city, but from a great variety of examples nationwide, that this type of clearing and closing off of land creates further problematic conditions (as opposed to solutions) in the areas in which they occur. Without active buildings, programming, people, and access these sites can easily become uncared for empty lots that potentially create conditions with undesirable outcomes that go beyond the obvious negative visual impact. Unlit, fenced and deactivated lots become literal barriers between activated spaces for those that live and work in these communities. It is against the very notion of a city plan, or planning itself, to create empty lots in areas in which there are already so many unused and non-activated spaces. The very notion of planning consists of creating a purpose, a need, resources, and opportunities to further enhance and allow for an engaged community. Creating empty lots with unknown futures is simply bad planning. This condition already exists, and it has not proven to be a fruitful means to engage the surrounding community. Empty, unused space only provides people with unsightly lots and unused land, resulting in an overall waste for the public and the city. We need to promote neighborhood development through targeted areas and infill development.

2. Sustainability and Adaptive Reuse:

It is clear that one of the most environmentally responsible reactions to a building or site that is no longer needed is that of finding a new purpose for the EXISTING building and site. The prevalent rallying cry seems to be “anything new is better than what we had.” Complete replacement in lieu of a sustainable approach based on renovations, adaptive reuse and infill development is simply not supportive of the sustainable mandate that the RSD is requiring for it’s new schools construction criteria. The process of planning, design, demolition and replacement is not only more costly than renovations, it takes more time and it is not sustainable.

While it is easy to tear and build new, this is a great waste not only of the material and structure that is tossed into a landfill, but also as concerns the secondary materials and wastes involved with building new. Within the current schools plan, there has already been an example of a school deemed as unnecessary--in terms of populations served—that has been given a new and needed purpose. This example is Mahalia Jackson, which is now being transformed into an educational center for young mothers and children. Taking a site which no longer demands the population to serve a school, and in turn creating a site to serve a community with a much-needed service, is a prime example for a successful adaptive reuse project. The building is preserved, upgraded and transformed for a current condition and direct need. This current example should be further investigated as to what methods were adopted, etc. to make this happen. Was this a singular gesture? How and what paid for the outcome? Assuming there are others, why are so many sites not considered for the same result? How can we think about these site and structures as OPPORTUNITIES to further engage the surrounding areas and community with solutions as opposed to providing them with open lots that serve nothing and no one for the immediate future? Have other organizations been involved with creating opportunities, responses and purpose for the sites? How can we, as an organization, help to identify and pair the organizations with purpose and need with these sites? If the objective is education, can we further identify other organizations with the same mission to assist in not only programming these sites, but also to identify and retain funds for the same purpose?

Renovation and rehabilitation of these school buildings can become symbolic of the city’s ability to recover and renew itself.


3. Historic Preservation
Many of the sites deemed for demolition have been recognized as having historic significance, and should be treated with this in mind. These identified historic resources speak of a place, time, and culture -- something that should be retained for future generations to learn from. We have the great opportunity to retain these sites, and the history of New Orleans, while simultaneously creating new uses for these buildings.


There are many buildings that can and should be saved including a number facilities designed by E.A. Christy and the Priestly School of Architecture and Construction.

Of particular interest is the unique design of the Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School located at 2300 Dumaine Street in Historic Treme, which is currently slated for demolition and replacement in the second phase of the master plan.

It is imperative that the RSD secures the preservation of these buildings by taking the responsibility, as the owners, of ensuring that their fate is a positive one, and does not end with demolition or neglect. Whether these historically significant buildings are part of the public school system under the master plan, or are sold to outside parties for redevelopment in the community, the RSD should chose a course of action that plans for these sites to retain the historic properties that enrich the city.

Many of these buildings would adapt well to updated facilities and an integration of sustainable design elements. An adaptive approach that maintains sensitivity to the historically significant elements would be a positive and successful route for retaining these sites and integrating dual goals of preservation and sustainable design / adaptive reuse. This approach would make the introduction of these sites in the communities that much more successful, as not only historically educational and culturally rich components, but as models of an innovative approach that combines up-to-date facilities for the students with a successful sustainable design approach and the retention of historically and culturally significant fabric in the city for the enjoyment and education of our future generations.

We need to establish and promote an advocacy for preservation and conservation.

Petition the Plan

Jean Gordon Elementary School, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Eli Ackerman has been blogging the School Facilities Plan here. He writes:

As of this moment, the Orleans Parish School Board and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are scheduled to vote on the master plan within days though the plan was released in the midst of Gustav panic and is close to 2000 pages. The case for extension of the public comment deadline based on the insufficient amount of time the public has had to review and provide comment would be plenty compelling by itself. Yet, disturbingly, we've learned that some members of the Orleans Parish School Board, who are, and I can't stress this enough, directly responsible for the approval or rejection of an absolutely critical guiding master plan, HAVE NOT READ IT THEMSELVES.

The public comment period on the plan currently ends October 1, 2008. Save Our Schools New Orleans has created an online petition to extend the public review period to January 1, 2009. Please sign this petition.

We the undersigned urge you as our local and state public education leaders to extend the Orleans Parish Schools Master Facilities Plan Public Review & Comment Period for an additional 90 days to January 1, 2009.

There is magnificent descent and confusion within our community regarding this recently released document and we citizens must have the extended period in order to hold meaningful conversations within our own groups and with planners so as to make informed decisions regarding our thoughts on the plan. Furthermore, the current sitting OPSB only has 2 members seeking reelection, therefore we feel that the newly seated OPSB members will need to hear our well thought out concerns and suggestions regarding the plan as they will be the body that we will hold accountable for the implementation in the years to come.

In closing, we urge each member of the Orleans Parish School Board and LA Board of Elementary & Secondary Education to postpone your vote to approve the current Orleans Parish Schools Master Facilities Plan until after January 1, 2009. Thank you in advance for your support regarding the concerns of New Orleans citizens.

OUR Schools. OUR Future. OUR Plans.

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

ATTN :: Architects

Phillis Wheatley School, originally uploaded by regional.modernism. Photo: Frank Lotz Miller

You have until October 2, 2008 at 2pm to submit a Statement of Qualification to the Recovery School District to participate in the first $700 million phase of the School Facilities Master Plan.

see: Louisiana Department of Education Bids (LaPAC)

Public Notice-Invitation for New School Design Services

The Recovery School District is seeking Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) from highly qualified Architecture and/or Engineering Firms interested in providing complete Design Services for:

NEW SCHOOLS IN ORLEANS PARISH; NEW ORLEANS, LA
FOR THE NEW ORLEANS RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Solicitation No. 2008-05

Statements of Qualifications shall only by submitted on Recovery School District Standard Qualifications Form RSD-AE dated 08-08. A sample form is attached and an electronic file is available on the Department of Education’s website at:

http://wwwprd.doa.louisiana.gov/osp/lapac/bidlist.asp?department=14

In addition to the above website location, interested firms may obtain an official Request for Qualifications (RFQ) package from:

Recovery School District
c/o JACOBS/CSRS Program Managers
Attention: Stacey Rayford
909 Poydras Street, Suite 1200
New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 592-0155
rayford@csrsonline.com

Only those firms that have obtained the official RFQ package for this solicitation from the Recovery School District or from the Department of Education will be considered by the RSD A/E Selection Committee.

The original and five (5) copies of the Statement of Qualifications Standard Form RSD-A/E, dated 08-08 shall be delivered to Ms. Patti J. Wallace; Director of Purchasing and Contracts; 1201 North 3rd Street, Room 5-242; Baton Rouge, LA 70804.

Prime consultants must use the Standard Form RSD-AE Prime dated 08-08. Only Prime Consultant forms will be required for submission. Statements of Qualifications for this project will be accepted until 2:00 P.M., Central Standard Time, October 2, 2008.

Statements of Qualifications that have not been received by the above aforementioned deadline date and time will be rejected. Additionally, failure to submit all of the information on Standard Form RSD-AE dated 08-08 shall be considered non-responsive and may result in the Qualifications Statement being rejected.

The Recovery School District is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Therefore, all respondents are encouraged to utilize minority participation to the extent possible through the use of small, disadvantaged, and women-owned businesses as suppliers or sub-consultants.

Updates, changes, amendments, and answers to questions to this Solicitation will be posted to Department of Education website listed above.


Lest we forget, the School Facilities Master Plan is still under review. We just lost a solid week due to Hurricane Gustav. The Governor has declared another state of emergency due to the threat of Hurricane Ike. One would certainly hope the Orleans Parish School Board will extend the period for public comment, which currently ends September 19.


Please email your comments on the plan to masterplan@rsdla.net

Save Neighborhood Schools

francis t nicholls public high school, originally uploaded by anthonyturducken.

Douglass High School, 3820 St. Claude Avenue, E.A. Christy, architect, 1940. Non-federal PWA Project. Currently open. Scheduled to close in 2011.

The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish is available online, but since it encompasses over 2000 pages, I've had trouble assessing the plan in digital format. There are supposedly copies in the libraries, but not at the branches Uptown. Plus, I'd like to have my own copy to really dig into it. So I was initally pleased to hear the plan was available for purchase at Letterman's Printing. (504) 821-9997

But I was not prepared for the sticker shock. The Blueprint ($118) requires color printing, as it includes maps of the current situation and phases of the plan. The supplementary material printed in in black and white more than double that cost (Educational Program Requirements $18, Building Standards $23 and the 1400 page Building Assessments $97).

A $700 million plan in phase one. Fifty-sixty-something schools landbanked. And they can't give every neighborhood group and school that requests one a copy of this plan?

from today's Times-Picayune. Letter to the Editor

Re: "Mid-City residents criticize school plan," Metro, Aug. 23.

The Recovery School District plans to close and "landbank" Dibert Elementary School in Mid-City and leave Morris F.X. Jeff closed. I urge the RSD to reconsider their decision.

Both school buildings are very similar to the Andrew Wilson School building in Broadmoor, which is being renovated. They are no more obsolete than the buildings that house the Lusher charter schools, Audubon Montessori, Arthur Ashe and other schools Uptown.

Paul Vallas, the RSD superintendent, was quoted as saying that the RSD wants "to build a brand new school on a larger site that can serve more kids." Smaller schools may be a better option, though, because they provide a close community of students, parents, teachers and support staff.

My children attended Dibert Elementary School in the 1980s and early 1990s. Children from the neighborhood as well as those from other neighborhoods benefited from the strong academic program, the emphasis on the arts, the proximity to City Park and the close and diverse community that developed at the school.

The RSD should let Dibert remain open and renovate Morris F.X. Jeff.

Patricia Roger

New Orleans

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

Adapt old schools to new uses

Thomy Lafon Elementary School (THREATENED), 2601 Seventh Street, Curtis and Davis, architects, AIA Honor Award, 1954. Photo: Frank Lotz Miller. Copyright: Tulane Libraries, Special Collections, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

Today the Thomy Lafon School sits abandoned, high and dry, in the center of what was once the Magnolia / CJ Peete Housing Development. The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish does not provide for its renovation and does not indicate future plans for any school facility on that site. The building itself could be adapted to other uses: a community resource center, an arts and cultural center, or a small business incubator. New Orleans has a history of this type of adaptive reuse of old school sites. The McDonogh No. 10 School in central city has been redeveloped into Lindy's Place, a residence for women in transition. If school facilities are no longer needed by the school district, they can still assist in the recovery and rebirth of their neighborhoods in other ways. Today's Times-Picayune features a letter to the editor from Wayne Troyer, Architect.

Re: "Building boom," Page 1, Aug. 17.

As we progress with the rebuilding of our public schools, we must consider not only the immediate needs of the Recovery School District and Orleans Parish School Board but the long-term goals of neighborhoods affected by the master plan.

With the extent of demolition and replacement proposed, it is imperative that as a community, we step back and evaluate the long-term loss of the culture, diversity and history that these structures represent before they are torn down and hauled to the landfill.

Complete replacement in lieu of renovations and adaptive reuse is simply reckless and immoral.

Land-banking (demolition of existing buildings, seeding the land, fencing it off and then waiting for development sometime in the future) is not a strategy for strengthening neighborhoods.

Renovation, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of school buildings can become symbolic of the city's ability to recover and renew itself.

Demolition and replacement show that we have lost respect for our history.

The clean slate approach, at this time of scarcity and escalating cost of building materials, is simply wrong.

Wayne Troyer recently worked with Vincent James Associates Architects on the renovation of Tulane's University Center, also by Curtis Davis, into the new Lavin-Bernick Center.

Metropolis :: point of view

In the Metropolis blog Daniela Morell concludes:

The New Orleans’s public school system is notoriously bad and deserves improvement. But is it necessary for the city’s architectural heritage to take such a beating in the process? “It’s always more challenging to retrofit,” says Stock, “but in a case where you have a significant and innovative structure there’s great value there.” Add to the mix environmental considerations, such as the master plan’s recommendation that new schools aim for LEED Silver certification or the ever growing detritus of the old New Orleans piling up in the city’s landfills, and preserving the embodied energy and materials of these schools takes on yet another level of significance. This is a unique time to start fresh with the New Orleans school system, but the city’s architectural history should not have to be erased wholesale to achieve new goals.

Read the complete story here.

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.

the child is the monument

Thomy Lafon Elementary School (THREATENED), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Dozens of public school buildings in Orleans Parish are threatened by demolition or "complete replacement" in the preliminary School Facilities Master Plan.

Tonight (Thursday 7.10) there is a Facilities Master Plan Community Update Meeting at the Dryades YMCA, 2000 Philips St. @ 6:30 PM.

My concern for the fate of our Modernist monuments does not supercede my concern for the fate of our children. In fact, they are entwined. Charles Colbert, architect was the original designer of the new school building program initiated in 1950. He encouraged his fellow architects to consider the "emotional and spiritual needs of children" in their design of school buildings. "The child is the monument," he wrote.

Two of unoccupied school facilities, Thomy Lafon Elementary and Phillis Wheatley Elementary, were built on raised piers which saved them from the flood. The initial design was driven by a desire to create ample play space protected from the elements on an urban site. They were designed in a period of sheer optimism and growth. The conservation of these structures can serve as symbols of the city's rebirth, as we recover the future from the past.