Private sector leads reconstruction

Three years after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and decimated thousands of homes, a movement is afoot to build residences that will stand up to both natural disasters and climate change.

Efforts to rebuild the city—which was most recently hit by Hurricane Gustav, leading to the evacuation of 2 million people—have been slow and steady. The state of Louisiana offers financial incentives for energy efficient building, but in New Orleans most green construction efforts have been driven by the New Orleans–based private sector, architect John Schackai says. Building net-zeroenergy homes that can also weather storms was the goal of Global Green USA’s Holy Cross Project, which includes five single-family LEED Platinum-certified homes, an 18-unit apartment complex and a community center. The first home, completed in May 2008, is being used as a visitor center while the rest of the project is completed.

Global Green officials say the homes are a model of how to protect coastal cities from the effects of climate change. Built on the highest ground in the city’s Ninth Ward, the elevated structures include specially designed solar panels to withstand hurricane winds, and cypress flooring and paperless drywall to resist mold and flood damage. Collectively, the green and storm-resistant aspects of the Holy Cross homes add about 1 percent to 2 percent to construction costs already inflated by steep labor, material and insurance prices, Global Green USA’s New Orleans director Beth Galante says. Down-the-road energy savings and insurance breaks should eventually offset higher building costs, she says.

Located in the Gentilly neighborhood, Project Home Again is a 20-home pilot project funded with $20 million from Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) chairman Leonard Riggio’s family foundation. The final project is slated to include 130 energy-efficient houses. Schackai worked with fellow architect Molly Buchenberger and New Orleans-based sustainable design consultants FutureProof to design the project.

The elevated homes are designed to withstand winds of more than 130 miles per hour and are built using non-toxic decay-resistant wood and reclaimed elements from other deconstructed New Orleans homes.

On average, the population of New Orleans is about 70 percent of pre-Katrina levels, though the hardest hit areas—such as Gentilly and the Ninth Ward—have far fewer residents. Riggio says he hopes by siting Project Home Again in Gentilly, it will serve as a model for redevelopment and recovery.