Way down yonder in New Orleans

“Way down yonder in New Orleans

In the land of dreamy scenes

There’s a garden of Eden

You know what I mean”

-Louis Armstrong

This article about rebuilding historic New Orleans is intriguing. It seems like the perfect merger of historic preservation and sustainability. I especially like the high level of hands-on involvement by donors and volunteers with HistoricGreen, which is a grass-roots organization that is actually making substantial and noticeable progress for both fields of preservation and sustainability.

The campaign is currently underway until next Monday, and brings together a variety of people with similar motives. I am impressed also by the variety of projects that HistoricGreen is working on. I notice that there is no mention of LEED in particular, but there is a free consultation service provided for the locals in conjunction with the USGBC to learn about rebuilding Green. Additionally, where buildings are essentially too far gone, they are practicing reuse of their pieces and then “deconstruction” takes place – a word that rarely ever gets mentioned, but should get a little more attention. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of anything but demolition when it comes to tearing down and building new.

I’m especially pleased that this project is featuring sustainability and preservation in the Lower 9th Ward, where the residents were low-income minorities. This is a rare case in either field, primarily because of the money involved. However, due to the volunteer-based nature of the HistoricGreen effort, this kind of change is possible. I’m so happy to see a group championing this and setting a great model for other cities and localities.

The bullets at the bottom of the article are essentially a checklist of all the components of sustainability: aesthetics, preservation, social, environmental, professional. The article even talks about the pull for green economy bringing jobs to the area. Plus, the way they’ve talked it up, I’m sure that tourism is going to be part of the aftermath, because it sounds like the the process and the finished product are going to produce fantastic results.

~ by madeleinehawks on March 17, 2008.