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Saturday, April 08, 2006
Gentilly charrette
Some people don't understand. New Orleans had a disaster from which it may never recover. Its citizens are still scattered across the country. Helping New Orleans is not about urbanism versus Starchitecture, New Urbanism versus the avant garde, or style wars.
At long last, a little more than six months after Katrina, there will be a charrette in New Orleans. It won't fix New Orleans by itself, but it will help provide a better future for the city and its residents.
The team will assemble in New Orleans on April 17th 18th, and leave on the 26th 27th: I'm happy to say I'll be there. Presumably t There will be a public presentations at 7 pm on the 20th and the 22nd 18th, and the final presentation will be on the 25th 26th. Details to follow as available.
April 8, 2006 in Architecture, Current Affairs, New Urbanism, Urbanism | Permalink
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» Gentilly Charette Update from Veritas et Venustas
THE CHARRETTE will be hosted by the Gentilly Civic Improvement Association atSt. Leo the Great2916 Paris AvenueGentilly, NOLAThe opening presentation and first general public meeting will be in the church of St. Leo the Great at 7 pm on Thursday April ... [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 13, 2006 11:08:34 PM
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Re: Duany Plater-Zyberk & New Urbanism at work in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans - May 2006
As a Gentilly resident from 2001 until August 29, 2005, I had long fantasized about the redevelopment into a New Urbanist town center of the commercial district located in the heart of Gentilly. Located at the intersection of Elysian Fields Avenue and Gentilly Boulevard (U.S. 90), this commercial node was, pre-Katrina, adjacent to Dillard University, close to the University of New Orleans - meaning that some 20,000 students studied nearby - and boasted some of the best public transit links outside of the 19th century New Orleans footprint. Two high-traffic crosstown bus lines - both locals and expresses - stopped there, and the intersection was the starting point for another crosstown line. Pedestrian activity was significant and almost omnipresent. Another intriguing aspect of this node was the presence of a complete street grid, seemingly ready-made for the retrofitting of mixed-use structures built to the lot lines. Unfortunately, the commercial development almost entirely dated from the period 1950-1970, with predictably enormous set-backs and acres of unlandscaped parking lots. Still, while waiting at this location for the Elysian Fields bus to take me to the University of New Orleans' main campus on the Lakefront, I would regularly dream of a mixed-use, walkable Gentilly Town Center. I was therefore delighted when the new Gentilly Civic Improvement Association (www.gcia.org) invited DPZ to get to work. Not only did they bring to life my fantasy for this intersection, they enlisted the neighborhood in sketching a compelling vision for Gentilly as a whole, to make what was, pre-Katrina, a good semi-suburban neighborhood into a great, more urban neighborhood. (Charrette results may be viewed on the GCIA website.) Keep in mind that, pre-Katrina, the majority of the developed land within the City of New Orleans proper was constructed along suburban lines, since it was impossible to develop areas apart from the high ground near the Mississippi River and the terrain straddling several natural ridges before adequate pumping technology arrived, circa 1900. There is enormous opportunity to, at a minimum, replace the strip malls of numerous aging (and now devastated) commercial nodes with denser, more walkable, mixed-use construction within these vast semi-suburban neighborhoods without compromising New Orleans' distinctive built landscape in the slightest. In fact, I feel that such actions would build upon the city's inimitable pedestrian scale by dramatically enlarging the area in which such characteristics prevail. And Reed Kroloff is insufferable.
Posted by: Frank Rabalais at Jun 17, 2006 12:49:34 AM
