Visions of a Subtropical City: Simultaneous Urban Paradigms for New Orleans

New Orleans is a notoriously hot, humid, subtropical city. It is also a costal city located very near the Gulf of Mexico, between and below the Mississippi River and the large brackish Lake Pontchartrain. Surrounded by water and wetlands, the city is effectively an island reached only by boat or causeway. New Orleans has experienced rapid changes in density over its 300-year history reaching a peak of 625,000 people in 1965 – and then shrinking to 425,000 in 2004, and 200,000 in late 2005 before growing again to 315,000 in 2012. We may also add to this series of variables the fact that much of New Orleans continues to sink below sea-level and that the surrounding River, Lake and Gulf levels continue to rise due to global climate change. The urban “idea” of New Orleans is also in flux. In fact, it may be more accurate to say that New Orleans is currently pursuing several entirely distinct and often mutually contradictory urban concepts. It is following multiple forks in its morphological path – each leading to a different paradigm of dwelling in a hot, humid climate, in the midst of ambiguous coastal waters, and in the presence of vast infrastructural investments and perceived geographic inevitabilities. Some of the “visions for a new New Orleans” are based on desirable but improbable notions of social justice and a “one-to-one” replacement of the city before the flooding accompanying Hurricane Katrina. Some visions emerge from an anachronistic optimism about the possibility of civil engineering projects featuring ever-higher levees and ever-larger pumps. Other visions imagine a full retreat to higher-ground with substantial increases in density on those high-ground locations and a correspondingly reduced and softer infrastructure. Still other visions imagine a city without collective infrastructure at all – where each home is a freestanding entity with its own grid-less power, on-site water management, and self-contained infrastructure.Each of these “visions” or paradigms of a reconstructed city produce a specific or implied “mode of dwelling” in the new infrastructure (or its lack). In this research project, these housing/dwelling/urban forms have been analyzed, categorized and presented with original graphics created to show different plans and proposals in an easily comparable format. Four distinct strategies of urban re-construction are featured and four modes of “new housing” accompany each of these visions. Each of these strategies is presented in relation to the historic development and occupation of New Orleans to compare the city’s established trajectory to the various proposals. Several built examples (buildings as well as infrastructure) of each paradigm or vision will help illustrate the concepts presented. Substantial original photography and carefully documented historical buildings types and urban patterns accompany the analysis.Visions of a transformed “post-Katrina” New Orleans created by the Urban Land Institute, the Bring New Orleans Back coalition, the Congress for a New Urbanism, the Make it Right Foundation, Morphosis, Habitat for Humanity, and a wide range of other contributors will be presented.

Volume Editors
Anthony Abbate, Francis Lyn & Rosemary Kennedy

ISBN
978-0-935502-90-9