Resiliency Revised: Remediation and Recreation in New Orleans Water Systems

RESILIENCY REVISED REMEDIATION AND RECREATION IN NEW ORLEANS WATER SYSTEMS

Nicole Mehaffey Thesis Research, Analysis & Design Submitted May 2016 Advisor Marianne Desmarais Tulane University School of Architecture

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CONTENT Abstract & Statement 4 Introduction 6 Thesis Essay 8 Annotated Bibliography 36 Precedent Research & Case Study Analysis 38 Program Analysis 48 Site Analysis 54 Project Development 68

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S TAT E M E N T

ABSTRACT

Resiliency in New Orleans must be redefined by converting an existing, rigid and defensive approach to water management to a more integrated, flexible and reciprocal strategy of urban planning. By merging public amenity with public awareness, rightful authority can be given back to the natural systems of our chosen milieu through the recognition of flux as an element of design.

In environmental terms, New Orleans is a city that should not exist. With the Mississippi River eager to escape its engineered confinement, the topography of the city sinking slowly due to subsidence, and the steady rise of sea level partnered with wetland and coastal erosion, the future of New Orleans is wet and it is fast approaching. Initial settlers built on the naturally elevated sediment deposits of the Mississippi River, but over time and as the city grew, swamps were drained and occupation spread into lower, more saturated ground. For over two hundred years, humans have interfered with water’s natural authority over this area.

We have contained, diverted, drained, and regulated rivers, lakes, and swamps to maintain a constructed version of the ground plane that subverts natural processes to the regions’ detriment.

Plans for the future of New Orleans have been debated since Hurricane Katrina served as an exposé to our synthesized and extremely fragile system. From the Dutch Dialogues, a comprehensive urban redevelopment plan, to smaller scale water management studies such as the Mirabeau Water Gardens, the drawing board has rarely been empty. Proposals have met resistance from the community, and ten years after the disaster, no coherent plan has been outlined. New Orleans isn’t the only city searching for answers; delta and coastal cities the world over are recognizing the need to rethink resiliency and sustainability in light of global environmental changes.

figure 1 Water and Subsidence in Southern Louisiana image by author

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This project proposes neighborhood-scale interventions that bring previously concealed water processes to light by exhibiting them in a sustainable community-centered resource. Rather than altering existing infrastructure, this strategy would utilize current neutral ground conditions in order to take pressure off the City’s drainage network. By accepting and accommodating water within the urban fabric, New Orleans can address the deficiencies in defensive water infrastructure to define a new resilience.

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INTRODUCTION figure 2 Marshall, Bob. “Losing Ground.” ProPublica.

August 14, 2014. <http://projects.propublica.org/ louisiana/> edited by author

In order to rethink or revise the city of New Orleans, we must first understand the components that have contributed to its current condition. Recognizing the geography of this deltaic plain is paramount. The region’s topography was first built and has since been governed by the Mississippi River. The city was founded because of its strategic position on the threshold between the Gulf of Mexico and the heart of the United States.

In the city’s early history, urban development was influenced and frequently thwarted by the River’s authority over the area.

With the rise of modern technology, humans discovered new ways to contain, redirect, drain, dredge, restrict and control the waters that surrounded them. Infrastructural interventions seemed to solve problems of flooding and protect against potential storms, contributing to an overall feeling of separation from water: a safety from its imminent threats. The effects that the interventions had on the environment were not apparent until disaster struck in the form of a powerful hurricane. The walls had not only confined a slowly accumulating volume of water, but prompted the sinkage of dry land beside the rising water, exaggerating the “bowl” typology of New Orleans.

The primary responses to Hurricane Katrina’s destruction were questions: Why do people choose to live in harm’s way? Why did Bienville choose such an imperiled location? And most importantly, should we abandon New Orleans, or is it worth saving?

Since this critical event, recovery and redevelopment has been a slow and pain-staking process: city-scale proposals are outlined, discussed, critiqued, revised, and ultimately rejected. Neighborhoods and individuals initiate their own reconstruction strategies, disregarding any bigger-picture plans in favor of quick recovery, resulting in a sort of patch-work, home-grown revival.

If we critically evaluate the deficiencies and dangers of New Orleans’s existing natural and human-made environment, the successes and failures of post-Katrina redevelopment proposals, and the means and methods of those who live fortuitously with water, we should be able to define a new resilience.

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A CONDITIONAL “SITE” A S T R AT E G I C “ S I T U AT I O N ” 1 Campanella, Richard. Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans, 112.

2 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 17.

3 figure 3 “Louisiana Maps.” University of Texas at Austin Libraries.<https://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/louisiana.html> Original source “Map of the Tract between the former Coast Bluff, and the Mississippi River, known as, Orleans Island.” From Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, Compiled by George E. Waring, Jr., United States. Census Office, Part II, 1887. edited by author

Three centuries ago, the city of New Orleans emerged from a swampy delta as a strategic perch along the fertile banks of the Mississippi River, one hundred and fifty meandering miles north of its exit into the Gulf of Mexico. The position of this French fort was debated, and possible locations included Bayou Manchac near Baton Rouge, the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, Natchitoches, Biloxi, Mobile and Pensacola.1 Bienville ultimately selected New Orleans in order to take advantage of a safer, quicker, more reliable portage route. To avoid the long treacherous trip up the strong currents of the Mississippi River, ships could instead travel from the Gulf through the sheltered waters of the Mississippi Sound and Lake Pontchartrain, into a small inlet called Bayou St. John. The two mile plot of land between the termination of the canal and a bend in the Mississippi River was established as Vieux Carré and remains today as New Orleans’ French Quarter.

The advantages to founding a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi are notable: a mild climate, arable soil, military advantages, potential to control a new port connected to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and a strategic position to exploit and protect the vast French Louisiana claim.2 The naturally elevated banks, created by sediment deposits from the fast-flowing and gradually shifting river, provided a compatible site for building a city.

The disadvantages of this location were less obvious, and were recognized and dealt with over time. The settlers found that the powerful river was susceptible to seasonal flooding, and that the Gulf Coast area in general was subject to heavy rain and hurricanes. The swamp lands, resembling a bowl with the River —to the east, south and west— and the Lake —to the north— as an encircling rim, exhibited the tendency for extremely slow, sometimes nonexistent, drainage. This stagnant water provided habitat for dangerous wildlife, prompted unwanted decomposition and noxious fumes, and fostered the threat of disease.

Richard Campanella discusses the difference between “site” and “situation” in the founding of New Orleans. He states “what makes a great city is not its site but its situation. Site refers to the city’s actual physical footing; situation means its regional context

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4 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 24.

“New Orleans’s strategic position as the gateway to the Mississippi River valley bestowed upon it commercial advantages that outweighed any inherent site shortcomings.”5 5 Colten, Craig. An Unnatural Metropolis, 2.

and how it connects with the world.” 4 Comparing New Orleans to other strongly situated but poorly sited cities such as Venice, Manhattan, Vienna, and Rotterdam establishes it in a global dialogue about how cities respond to their inherited environmental conditions. Considering Bienville’s dilemma of weighing the advantages of situation and disadvantages of site in the location of New Orleans, Colten surmises, in An Unnatural Metropolis, that “situation won. That is, New Orleans’ strategic position as the gateway to the Mississippi River valley bestowed upon it commercial advantages that outweighed any inherent site shortcomings.”5 Although New Orleans can be considered one of America’s most important cities, its environmental obstacles have shaped its development and contributed to critical events in its three hundred year history. This is a sort of a cycle: geological conditions cause problems that prompt humans to intervene. Infrastructural interventions in turn, instigate environmental changes and vice versa, resulting in a seemingly never-ending cause and effect loop.

HUMAN INTERVENTION: T H E C I T Y A S A N “ A N T I T H E S I S ” T O N AT U R E figure 4 “Louisiana Maps.” University of Texas at Austin Libraries.<https://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/louisiana.html> Original source “Diagram showing the inundated District Sauvé’s Crevasse May 3rd 1849.” From Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, Compiled by George E. Waring, Jr., United States. Census Office, Part II, 1886. edited by author 6 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 39.

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For the next century and a half, the expansion of New Orleans was restricted to the natural crescent-shaped high ground along the River’s bank. The “back of town” was defined by what is now Claiborne Ave, an edge that distinguished land below sea level —the uninhabited marshes— from the slope of the River’s natural levee.6 The French quickly realized that the earthen levee was not sufficient enough to prevent flooding and erected New Orleans’s first artificial levees in the 1720’s. The first step was to create an 18 foot wide, 3-4 foot tall bulwark than ran a mile along the town’s riverfront. Since the levee only directly responded to the riverfront, high water that escaped its banks beyond the extents of the flood protection could rise from the back of town and inundate New Orleans. A pair of levees were then constructed at the edges of town, perpendicular to the river, extending into the back swamp. To complete the enclosure, a final levee running parallel with the river, along the present day route of Rampart Street, was erected. This first closed-loop

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system encircled a 44 square block area, and was successful for a few years until it collapsed before the 1735 flood.7 “Preparing for and responding to water hazards were powerful influences in shaping the largest city on the lower Mississippi... These manipulations were the measure of transactions between humans and nature”7 7 Colten, Craig. An Unnatural Metropolis, 19.

8 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 73.

9 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 78.

10 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 129.

11 figure 5 “Vertical Migration: Population Distribution with respect to Topographic Elevation 1700s-2000.” Campanella, Richard. Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans, 188. edited by author

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With technological advancements at the turn of the twentieth century came the implementation of municipal drainage.

Not only were plans made for a system to drain runoff and groundwater from saturated soil, but the previously uninhabitable marshland could now be made “dry” and marketed as valuable real estate. In 1895, the Drainage Advisory Board proposed a strategy using natural topography to drain water to low points within the city’s “hydrological sub-basins” —neighborhoods with similar elevation gradients. From these low points, one set of pumps would propel water through outfall canals, and a separate set would dispel water into adjacent lakes.8 Campanella identifies municipal drainage as the “single most dramatic transformation of the New Orleans cityscape.”

He goes on to say that “The brilliant solution that drained the dreaded backswamp… created scores of beautiful neighborhoods and thousands of happy home owners. But the drainage system, together with the levee system, also enticed people into harm’s way with a fatally false sense of security.” 9 “Modern levee construction and municipal drainage effectively ended the occasional flooding—from river, lake, or sky—that frustrated New Orleanians in historical times.”10 What the city didn’t immediately comprehend were the effects of this infrastructural overhaul. The levees and drainage system eliminated incoming water and sediment, removing water from the soil body and allowing organic matter to decompose. Consequently, the sand, silt and clay particles then settled, compacting the land and lowering its elevation. Subsidence is not a new story in New Orleans. In 1860 a report to Congress measured that St. Charles Hotel, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Louis Hotel and the Custom House had each sunk between 20 and 36 inches. This localized sinkage was caused by heavy structures bearing too much weight upon the soft soils at their bases. In contrast, the widespread sinkage that worsened throughout the 20th century was systematic: by 1960, some neighborhoods in the lakeside lowlands had dropped 3-6 feet below sea level. This major sinking was due in part to a suburban migration from the city’s core outward into the marsh-turned-neighborhoods. At the end of the 20th century, half of the city’s topography and 62% of its population resided below sea level.11

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“Modern levee construction and municipal drainage effectively ended the occasional flooding— from river, lake, or sky—that frustrated New Orleanians in historical times.”10

12 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 130.

figure 6 “17th Street Canal” Mendelsohn, Ben. “New Orleans.” Ben Mendelsohn. February 17, 2013. <http://alexplusben. com/article/louisiana-new-orleans>

figure 7 “Orleans Avenue Canal looking North 2009” Grissett, Sheila. “Work to Begin on New Orleans Outfall Canals.” Nola.com. February 3, 2011. <http:// www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2011/01/work_ to_begin_on_three_new_orl.html>

“Separating the human-made environment from its natural endowment has been the perpetual battle for New Orleans.”13 13 Colten, Craig. An Unnatural Metropolis, 2.

14 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 182.

15 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 133.

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The hazards of occupying land below sea level are twofold. First, the water that would normally drain down a slope is trapped in a bowl. Second, the open-air canals and pumping systems that are needed to remove the trapped water tend to remain at or above sea level while the adjacent land sinks. This creates an alarming anomaly of water flowing above the rooftops of the sunken neighborhoods.12 What has happened between colonial times and now is a series of human interventions on natural environmental conditions.

Campanella defines deltas as “products of fluidity and dynamism.”14 When we attempt to rationalize our deltaic environment, particularly when trying to overlay a city or infrastructure on top of it, we combat nature. “Humans resist geological volatility and seek to tame it by imposing rigidity, constraint, and order upon it.”14 In New Orleans, we have disrupted nature in two ways: restriction and replication. From the drainage of the backswamp, to the reinforcement of the levees on the Lake and the River, we contain, redirect, drain, and dam the water surrounding us. We also dredge, dig and fortify canals for drainage and industry. Within the city, canals were dug to provide for water retention and drainage. Outside city limits, gas and fishing industries dredged hundreds of waterways for quicker access to the swamps and the coastline. Instead of utilizing the existing waterways, we’ve reproduced nature with artifice, creating a chaotic, scarred land and waterscape.15

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figure 8 “Spoil Banks: Edges of canals dredged by oil and gas industry” from “Louisiana Is Drowning, Quickly.” Touching Your Community. August 30, 2014. <http://touchingyourcommunity.com/2014/08/30/louisiana-is-drowning-quickly/>

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figure 9 “Mississippi River Levee under High Water 2011” Devlin, Ray. “New Orleans and Louisiana Aerials.” Ray Devlin Photography. <http://raydevlinphotography.com/new-orleans-louisiana/louisiana-aerials>

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T H R E AT E N E D F R O M E V E R Y D I R E C T I O N 16 figure 10 “Subsidence in New Orleans 2002-2005” Dixon, Amelung, Ferretti, Novali, Rocca, Dokka, Sellall, Kim, Wdowinski, and Whitman. (2006). Subsidence and flooding in New Orleans. Nature, 441, 587-588. Link <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ IOTD/view.php?id=6623>

17 Campanella, Richard. Bienville’s Dilemma: A Historical Geography of New Orleans, 188.

18 Marshall, Bob. “Louisiana Coast Faces Highest Rate of Sea Level Rise Worldwide.” The Lens. February 21, 2013. <http://thelensnola.org/2013/02/21/newresearch-louisiana-coast-faces-highest-rate-of-sealevel-rise-on-the-planet/>

19 “Louisiana Coastal Erosion: Facts and Figures.” Restore of Retreat. 2012. <http://www.restoreorretreat. org/coastal_erosion.php>

20 Mooney, Chris. “A Scientific Storm Is Brewing Over the Hurricane-Climate Connection.” Mother Jones.

July 11, 2013. <http://www.motherjones.com/bluemarble/2013/07/hurricanes-global-warming-kerryemanuel>

21 Roach, John. “Is Global Warming Making Hurricanes Worse?” National Geographic. August 4, 2005. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ news/2005/08/0804_050804_hurricanewarming. html>

From the rapidly receding coast line, its most significant defense against storms, to the precarious walls that hold back the powerful Mississippi and the submissive Lake Pontchartrain, from the tropical climate that delivers heavy rain and the risk of storms, to the sinking ground beneath our feet, New Orleans is a city that is threatened from all directions.

Subsidence New Orleans sunk 1/8 inch to 1 1/8 inch during an observed three year period from 2002-2005.16 This is the slowest subsidence rate observed since the levees were initially built in the mid 20th century. Campanella observes that from 1895 to 2000, the most extreme elevation change occurred in New Orleans East where subsidence was upwards of 8 feet. Some neighborhoods like Lakeview and Gentilly sunk 6 feet or more, while other parts of town, including parts of Uptown, Mid-City and the 7th Ward, had dropped a minimum of 2 feet.17 Coastal Erosion The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has identified that when the rate of coastal erosion is coupled with projected world-wide sea level rise, southeastern Louisiana could be inundated with 4-5 feet of Gulf water by 2100.18 Wetland Loss Louisiana is losing 25-35 square miles of wetlands each year, contributing to the prediction that over 640,000 acres of coast will be under water by 2050. Every 2.7 miles of wetlands absorb 1 foot of storm surge.19 Increase in Storm Intensity Rise in sea surface temperatures (due in part to global warming) contributes to increased strength and frequency of hurricanes in the Atlantic.20 Current models suggest that intensity and duration of hurricane should increase 5% for ever 1OC (1.8OF) rise in sea surface temperature.21

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figure 11 “Coastal Land Loss 1932 (top) 2010 (bottom)” Bob, Marshall. “Lawsuit against Oil and Gas Companies for Coastal Loss.” The Lens. July 23, 2013. <http://thelensnola.org/2013/07/23/science-to-be-keyfactor-in-lawsuit-against-oil-and-gas-companies-for-coastal-loss/> edited by author

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figure 12 “Major Hurricanes History (since 1851)” Gibney, Ethan J. “Tropical Cyclone Climatology.” National Hurricane Center. Accessed October 18, 2015. <http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/> edited by author

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K AT R I N A E X P O S E S

figure 13 “Exposing New Orleans: Katrina Flooding” Anthony, Fontenot, Rosenzweig Jakob, and Schmidt Anne. “NOLA Public Housing Analysis.” Princeton Envelope Group. 2005. <http://www.princetonenvelopegroup.com/2010/07/09/nola-public-housinganalysis/>

22 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 143-151.

23 Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism New Orleans, 149.

The region’s environmental fragility and the city’s infrastructural deficiencies were laid bare for it’s unsuspecting residents and the world on the last weekend in August 2005. On Friday the 26th, a state of emergency was declared by Governor Kathleen Blanco due to the impending threat: Hurricane Katrina. On Saturday the 27th, following the storm’s dramatic increase in strength due to unusually warm Gulf temperatures, emergency contraflow evacuation plans for the region were activated and the Gulf Coast population mobilized.

On Sunday the 28th, the storm strengthened from a Category 4 to 5 in a matter of hours, and Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city of New Orleans. While 15,000 of the remaining 100,000 residents took refuge in the Super Dome Sunday night, intense storm surge was being funneled through the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and the Intracoastal Waterway into the Industrial Canal. At dawn, with water levels upwards of 16 feet, the western wall breached, failing structurally under the pressure of the storm surge, and flooded the Upper 9th Ward.

With the Gulf of Mexico 10-30 feet and Lake Pontchartrain 9 feet above normal levels, the enormous volume of water found relief in the bowl-shaped neighborhoods of New Orleans. Succumbing to its unrelenting burden, the eastern wall of the Industrial Canal also breached, inundating the Lower 9th Ward. Shortly thereafter, the London Avenue Canal, the Orleans Avenue Canal, and the 17th Street Canal all either breached or were overtopped, submerging St. Bernard Parish, Jefferson Parish, New Orleans East, Gentilly and Lakeview.22 “The flood-protection and drainage system had not neutralized hydrology and topography; New Orleans’s ancient geographies of hazard, supposedly subjugated by technology generations ago, revealed their obscured relevance. Centuries of manipulating the deltaic plain had allowed the enemy to get too close to the fort. Decades of subsidence had turned the fort into a vulnerable bowl. And years of under-engineered, cavalierly inspected, and poorly maintained levees had turned the bowl into an impending catastrophe” 23

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figure 14 “Hurricane Katrina Floods the Southeastern United States : Natural Hazards.”

Earth Observatory. August 31, 2005. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=15429>

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figure 14 Flooding Brown, Ben. “Katrina ‘Ten Years After’” PlaceMakers. <http://www.placemakers.com/2015/08/03/katrina-ten-years-after-and-the-band-plays-on/>

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F U T U R E O F A D E LTA C I T Y: W H AT W E ’ V E P R O P O S E D

24 figure 16 “ULI’s Investment Zone Map” “New Orleans: A Strategy for Rebuilding.” Urban Land Institute. November 18, 2005. <http://uli. org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/NewOrleans-LA05-v5.pdf>

25 figure 17 “BNOB’s Green Dot Map” Krupa, Michelle. “Many Areas Marked for Green Space after Hurricane Katrina Have Rebounded.”

Nola.com. August 23, 2010. <http://www.nola.com/ katrina/index.ssf/2010/08/many_areas_marked_ for_green_space_after_hurricane_katrina_have_rebounded.html>

26 Russell, Gordon. “On Their Own: In the absense of clear direction, New Orleanians are rebuilding a patchwork city” The Times Picayune, New Orleans.

Aug 27, 2006 Newsbank. Web. <http://infoweb. newsbank.com.libproxy.tulane.edu:2048/resources/ doc/nb/news/113C6991E4E2EEA0?p=AWNB>.

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Immediately after the disaster, Mayor Ray Nagin formed the Bring Back New Orleans (BNOB) Commission who teamed up with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to evaluate and strategize the current situation and the future plans for New Orleans.

Some radical responses to the devastation proposed full-scale urban abandonment and relocation, while other more moderate schemes embraced the idea of surrendering low-lying neighborhoods to nature while focusing density in a more viable urban core. This notion became known as “shrinking the footprint” and was heavily debated and disputed. A recurring theme was the presentation— and misinterpretation— of maps.

The first was ULI’s “Rebuilding Plan”24 map which prioritized the recovery and allocation of resources in higher, less damaged areas, covertly advocating for footprint shrinkage. A subsequent map by BNOB, dubbed the “Green Dot Map”25 exhibited six green circles overplayed on top of low-lying neighborhoods, labeled “approximate areas expected to become parks and greenspace.” This set a general precedent for the city’s reaction to any and all redevelopment plans: resistance, disagreement and sometimes even hostility.

In early January 2006, BNOB released a report stating that neighborhoods had just four months to “prove their viability”.

This meant that 13 newly formed neighborhood districts would have to convene and discuss visions for their future. Topics up for discussion included the return of sufficient population numbers, evaluation of FEMA’s “advisory floodplain maps” which affected flood-insurance rates, requests for public facilities, and an outline for a buyout program that would allow any residents that could not meet the requirements to receive 100% of their home’s pre-Katrina value from a combination of legislation and private developers. A temporary ban on building permits was also part of the incentive, to discourage homeowners from starting the rebuilding process in case of potential condemnation. Even though Mayor Nagin rejected the building moratorium, fear of being pushed out by developers initiated a sort of patchwork, community driven recovery.26 One example of this smaller scale intervention is Brad Pitt’s Make It Right, founded

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27 figure 18 “Framework Water Management Strategy.” H+N+S Land­schapsarchitecten. 2011 <http://www.hnsland. nl/nl/projects/urban-water-plan-new-orleans> 28 Dutch Dialogues II <http://dutchdialogues.com/ 2010/05/03/dutch-dialogue-2/>

29 Metz, Tracy and Maartje van den Heuvel. Sweet & Salt, 240.

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three years after the disaster. Upon visiting the Lower 9th Ward, Pitt was surprised and saddened by the lack of recovery and rebuilding and proposed that a framework of safety, sustainability, quality and affordability could achieve the restoration of a community in need.

The Dutch Dialogues was held three years after Hurricane Katrina between Dutch experts and their American peers to discuss the future design and planning of New Orleans. The Dutch visitors’ initial reaction to the city’s landscape was “Where is the water and why is it hidden?”27 This question proved to be a jumping-off point for the strategies that were discussed, researched and diagrammed, and took inspiration from the Dutch idea of “Living with Water”. The group chose to begin assuming that LACPRA’s (Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority) restoration and strengthening of levees, flood walls and gates, application of new, more robust pump stations, and construction of three storm surge barriers at the edges of the city would happen. Their regional plan consisted of three major points: the redevelopment of existing canals into approachable and accessible bayous, a focus on Gentilly Ridge as natural high ground in the city that could separate two flood control zones, as well as a “super levee” constructed slightly offshore of existing levee on Lake Pontchartrain.28 David Waggoner, a local architect and the initiator of the Dialogues summarizes: “Our proposal is to create more space for the temporary collection of rainwater. You might call this the ‘neo-Dutch approach’ because this approach- first to hold rainwater, then store it and only discharge it afterwards- has only been recently applied in the Netherlands as well.”29

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EFFECTIVE MODELS 30 Metz, Tracy and Maartje van den Heuvel. Sweet & Salt, 77.

31 Metz, Tracy and Maartje van den Heuvel. Sweet & Salt, 84.

figure 19 “Tectonics of the Dutch Lowlands” Reh, Wouter, and Clemens M. Steenbergen. Sea of Land: The Polder as an Experimental Atlas of Dutch Landscape Architecture. Wormer: Stichting Uitgeverij Noord-Holland, 2007. edited by author

The Netherlands and New Orleans are in many ways comparable. They are both situated on deltas littered with waterways and marshes formed by powerful and important rivers. They’ve each deployed numerous infrastructural and hydrological strategies in order to develop urban and suburban areas. Both are vulnerable to tides and storm surge, the Dutch from the North Sea, and New Orleans from the Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain. Each has designed and implemented water management systems to respond to climate; the Netherlands are subject to gradual seasonal flooding while New Orleans has to prepare for sudden heavy rain and storm induced flash flooding. And finally, both are threatened by world-wide sea level rise paired with subsidence caused by the collapse of porous deltaic sediment.

The Dutch have a long history of “making a small country bigger”30 with the use of dikes and polders. A dike is similar to the earthen levees in New Orleans, mounds of earth that separate dry land from wet. A polder, or “land reclaimed by building a dike and then pumping the water out”30, is not unlike the low-lying drained-swamp neighborhoods like Lakeview and Gentilly in New Orleans. Even though the Netherlands contains over 3000 km of defensive dikes at the edges of rivers, lakes and the sea, as well as 13000 km of inland dikes, no significant polders have been constructed since the 1990’s.31 This is due to the realization that “impoldering” has caused dangerous changes in the landscape. The same type of subsidence that has been occurring in New Orleans for a century has also caused the polders to sink below sea level, adding stress to the already heroic drainage system and exaggerating the impending threat of flooding.

A new paradigm has been defined in the Netherlands that challenges the history of humans fighting water in their landscape by encouraging accommodation and integration; it is named Living with Water. In the face of shared environmental crises, can we learn from our predecessors, innovators in the field of water management, landscape architecture, flood protection and urban design?

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figure 20 “City Environs: Solid & Void” Amsterdam (top) New Orleans (bottom) Berman, Ila, and Mona El Khafif. URBANbuild: local / global, 380.

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REDEFINING RESILIENCE: A SCALED APPROACH

figure 21 image by author

The two most significant environmental issues in New Orleans are subsidence— interior— and sea level rise— exterior. The combination of these two put us at risk of infiltration and in some places, permanent submersion. Taking precedent from the Dutch approach, Living With Water, we can slowly incorporate water into more neighborhoods in the city, specifically the low-lying ones that reside below sea level. At the moment, water is only perceived from behind a wall. To combat the idea of hiding water, which leads us to disregard its significance and potential threat, how can we integrate water into a typical New Orleans neighborhood?

A neighborhood scale water retention system, one that feeds in to and supplements the larger more established drainage canals, can begin to assign more area for water storage in the event of a storm or flooding event. A flood event would be adverse in almost all low-lying New Orleans neighborhoods: not only are most houses sitting on slab on grade, but they are also slowly sinking. Adding surface water would serve to raise water table levels, effectively reducing subsidence by filling empty spaces in porous soils. To further benefit from a greater volume of water within the urban fabric, methods of natural filtration and remediation can be explored. Scaled water treatment proposals can provide a prototype for other abandoned or unused spaces in the city and could potentially culminate in a fully redefined system of water management.

What are the benefits and disadvantages to implementing a pixelated plan, dependent on the individual, the block or the neighborhood rather than an over-arching approach? There is a history of individualized development in New Orleans, from the colonial requirement for land owners to built and fortify their own levees, to the post-Katrina incentive for neighborhoods to “prove their worth” and viability in order to receive aid from the government. In order to create a model for a building and its surrounding plot of land to be resilient, we need to deal with the threat of flooding, land subsidence, and extreme weather from an individual level.

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W A T E R

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NETWORK

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N O D E

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

A N N O TAT E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y Beatley, Timothy. “Chapter 4: Urban Design for a Blue Planet.”

In Blue Urbanism: Exploring Connections between

Cities and Oceans. Washington DC: Island Press, 2014.

Beatley argues for “blue urbanism” in response to and in tandem with “green urbanism”, which has seen success in the last decade in cities and planning around the world. He demands for a more complimentary, sustainable and reciprocal relationship between cities and the waters that surround them. In the context of cities such as Toronto, Seattle, New York City, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Oslo, Beatley examines the successes and failures of a new strategy for reestablishing the relationship between urbanity and the water systems around it.

Berman, Ila, and Mona El Khafif. URBANbuild: local / global.

Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008.

Berman and the URBANbuild team systematically research, document, and analyze the city of New Orleans in terms of its urban, cultural, infrastructural, and environmental layers in order to form an integrated approach for rehabilitation after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Operating at three different scales, city, neighborhood and individual building, enables potential solutions to be cross disciplinary and synergetic. Investigations are also made in a global perspective, informing and contextualizing the exclusive local studies with research from precedent water cities around the world. Establishing a local-global framework is essential to propose a comprehensive strategy for redeveloping New Orleans.

Campanella, Richard. Delta Urbanism: New Orleans. Chicago:

American Planning Association, 2010.

Coastal ports and deltaic cities around the world are being confronted with enviornmental risks such as erosion, sea level rise, soil subsidence and intensifying tropical activity. In order to graple with the question of sustaining coastal cities in response to shared crises, Campanella traces the foundation, history and development of New Orleans as a sort of case study for a new delta urbanism.

36

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

Colten, Craig E. An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New

Orleans from Nature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State

University Press, 2006.

Examining the fundamental struggle to make a city habitable, specifically to transform the location of New Orleans from a flood-prone, ill-drained, mosquito infested site into a metropolis. Urban development has had to deal endlessly with nature, and has taken shape in a continuous effort to squeeze undesirable aspects of environment out of the setting. New Orleans has so thoroughly reworked its original setting that one could call it the “unnatural city”.

Metz, Tracy, and Maartje van den Heuvel. Sweet & Salt: Water

and the Dutch. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2012.

“No element is as intrinsic to the Dutch cultural identity as water.”

Centuries of dealing and designing with water has made the Dutch experts in the field. Engineers, hydrologists, architects and landscapers are now challenged with the effects of climate change: swelling rivers, wetter weather and sea levels rising. Instead of fighting the water, a new relationship with water is being fashioned where integration, flexibility and cooperation are the focus.

Meyer, Han, Dale Morris, and David Waggonner. Dutch

Dialogues: New Orleans, Netherlands: Common

Challenges in Urbanized Deltas. Amsterdam: SUN, 2009.

In October of 2008, three years after Hurricane Katrina, Dutch ambassadors and their American peers came together to form the Dutch Dialogues, drawing contrasts and comparisons between the Netherlands and New Orleans, and illustrating an approach to the redevelopment of New Orleans. Inspired by “Living with Water”, the recently implemented Dutch strategy for reaping the benefits and dealing with the challenges of the dynamic relationship between water and cities, unique opportunities were revealed and a comprehensive plan was developed to transform New Orleans from a “walled” city to a “water” city.

37

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

PRECEDENT RESEARCH & C A S E S T U D Y A N A LY S I S AMPHIBIOUS ARCHITECTURE & INTEGRATED URBAN DESIGN

38

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

39

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

section model & west and north elevations “Floating House / MOS Architects” 29 Dec 2008. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/10842/floating-house-mos/>

e ad,flood, will e the ock he dock fills fills s ently raising raising .rises.

WhenWhen n ound level level house The house 1thina 1 in osts xtend extend level such such gger floodflood ned etween between n

GROUND FLOOR GROUND OF THE FLOOR HOUSEOF THE HOUSE

3200

Fgravity Fgravity

3200

IN THE STATIC POSITION IN STATIC POSITION GROUND FLOOR OF HOUSE IN STATIC POSITION

900

+26.20

+26.2

+25.70

+25.7

+24.80

+24.8

2500

RIVER WATER RIVER LEVEL WATER LEVEL RIVER WATER LEVEL +24.80

2500

400 2500

900

400

400

Mdisplaced Mdisplaced water water

STATIC POSITION STATIC POSITION

300

STATIC POSITION

300

Mdisplaced water ed extend to extend d ervices s to to section & views from water ng during Grau, Dieter, and Zoe Ryan. Building with Water. Basel: De Gruyter, 2010. ow o allow eperty property F F Fbuoyancy buoyancybuoyancy ing ximising the the e

900

GROUND LEVEL GROUND LEVEL GROUND LEVEL +26.20 BUOYANCYBUOYANCY LEVEL LEVEL BUOYANCY LEVEL +25.70

FLOATING POSITION FLOATING POSITION FLOATING POSITION

300

Fgravity

3200

1% AEP WITH 1% CLIMATE AEP WITHCHANGE CLIMATEALLOWANCE CHANGE ALLOWAN ONCHANGE RIVERFLOWS): (+20% ON RIVERFLOWS): +28.42 +28.4 1% AEP WITH(+20% CLIMATE ALLOWANCE (+20% ON RIVERFLOWS): +28.42

FbuoyancyFbuoyancy = Mdisplaced = Mdisplaced water water Fbuoyancy = Mdisplaced water

Archimedes Archimedes Principle Principle signed d with with Archimedes Principle house any house car ke aorcar or ehouse may may efore it is it is maintain and maintain n on tem system to to o working ood working g rs. occurs.

be mped pumped ation test test m50tocm to vement, nt, ased and and ndown again.again. n.

Wheight of Wheight water moved of water compared moved compared to utilitarytocar utilitary weightcar weight

Thecompared house is equal isutilitary in equal weight weight to 170to cars 170 cars Wheight ofThe waterhouse moved to carin weight The house is equal in weight to 170 cars

visualization of rising floodwater “Life with Water: Amphibious House.” Baca Architects. <http://www.baca.uk.com/index.php/living-on-water/amphibious-house>.

ibious us House House House

© Baca©Architects Baca Architects 2014 20 © Baca Architects 2014

40

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

F L O AT I N G H O U S E Mos Architects Lake Huron, Point Ai Baril, Ontario, Canada 2007 A house that floats on a pontoon off of a remote island north of Toronto, serves as a connection between two landforms while imperceptably changing with the fluctuating water elevation.

ALUMINUM FORREST Abbink X De Haas Architectures Houten, Urecht, The Netherlands 2002 A headquarters for Stichting Aluminum Centrum is raised on 368 aluminum pilotis ranging from 4-8 inches in diameter. This building references the polder-strewn Dutch landscpape while advertising the advantages of aluminum construction: lightweight, recyclable, thermally independent, strong and stable.

THE AMPHIBIOUS HOUSE Baca Architects Marlow, Engand 2014 Baca Architects describe an amphibious structure as one â&#x20AC;&#x153;that rests on the ground but whenever a flood occurs, the entire building rises up in its dock, where it floats, buoyed by the floodwater.â&#x20AC;?1

concept diagram by author

41

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

NESSELANDE Dutch Polder Cities: Artificial Hydrological Entities Palmbout Urban Landscapes 2000 1 Berman, Ila, and Mona El Khafif. URBANbuild: local/ global. Richmond: William Stout Publishers, 2008.

2 Nillesen, Anne Loes, and Jeroen Singelenberg. “Ch 6: Projects: Nesselande” In Waterwonen in Nederland: Amphibious Housing in the Netherlands, 8185. Rotterdam: NAi Uitgevers, 2011.

3 “Rotterdam Nesselande.” PALMBOUT Urban Landscapes. <http://palmbout.nl/projecten/>.

The Netherlands have a unique relationship to water, comparable in almost every way to New Orleans. This Dutch delta is affected by flooding from storm surges from the North Sea (much like Lake Ponchartrain), heavy rainfall (climate influenced by vicinity to water), global rising sea levels, and subsidence of the naturally soft and porous deltaic sediment. Over half of the country is located below sea level.1 The Dutch have an extensive history of land conservation and production, implementing infrastructural systems such as dykes, pumping stations, canals and locks to both manage and protect themselves from water.

Nesselande is a suburb in a polder northeast of Rotterdam, stimulated by the lake Zevenhuizerplas. Polders are a type of drained agricultural land, separated from surrounding water sources by controlled drainage canals and dikes.2 This polder suburb is crossed by three main dykes that also function as roadways. Large islands with excavated channels like ditches create individual plots that are connected to the dyke/road by smaller land bridges.

There are three different typologies of houses in Nesselande, the first is a platform house, raised on stilts sitting completely in the water. The second is similarly raised on piloti but half on land and half over water. The third sits on a small bed of raised land next to the water.

aerial view of polder

42

above diagram by palmbout clockwise from left: island plot / quadrant / apartment complex / houseboat / platform home / free island

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

community plan showing water + floating properties + dykes & roads + greenspace diagram by author

site sections showing dyke + canal + garden + road + house diagram by author

housing typologies

panoramic view from road + dyke

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

U R B A N W AT E R P L A N 1 “Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan.” Living With Water: A New Vision for Delta Cities. <http:// livingwithwater.com> 2 “Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan.” Waggonner & Ball Architects. <http://www.wbarchitects. com/urban-design/greater_new_orleans_water_ management_strategy/> 3 “Oplossing Kwaliteits Impuls (Solution and Quality Boost)” H+N+S Landschapsarchitecten. <http:// www.hnsland.nl/nl/projects/urban-water-plan-neworleans>

Greater New Orleans Lead by Waggoner & Ball Architects 2012 The current approach to water in New Orleans is to avoid and ignore. By pumping out every drop of water that falls on the city’s soil, imbalances occur in the relationships between water, land, city and people. A new approach to water storage and management designates more room for water in a dry city: SLOW: Rooftops, driveways, streets, and sidewalks can be redesigned to catch rain where it falls, and to allow some of that water to soak into the ground STORE: Large scale detention and retention features integrated into canal networks and public spaces provide additional storage capacity.

DRAIN: Pumping should not be the only solution for managing stormwater but it times of heavy rainfall or emergency, water can be exported to exterior waterbodies

underground drainage networks focus on rapid discharge

problematic low areas

44

current vs proposed outfall canal conditions

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

PAVE

PIPE

PUMP

PAVE

PIPE

PUMP

SLOW

STORE

DRAIN

STORE

DRAIN

current vs proposed water management strategies image by author

SLOW

Framework for a new Water Management Strategy

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

A M P H I B I O U S TA C T I C S Studio Investigation with Marc Tsurumaki Everglades National Park, Florida A studio exploring the dialogue between architecture and environment, “the constructed and the natural”1, proposes a national park hotel/lodge in the midst of the Everglade swamp.

The lodge seeks to compensate for the National Park’s desire to use nature as recreation to promote tourism while at the same time preserving and protecting a volatile ecosystem. It is interesting to examine the ways that architecture, which is rigid, static, and fixed, can intersect and interact with water, which is fluid, flexible and dynamic.

Tsurumaki describes the Everglades as “neither land nor water,”1 but a sort of extremely slow moving and shallow river. There are similarities between the Everglades ecosystem and the environment produced by the Mississippi River’s influence on New Orleans.

An infrastructural undertaking, called the “Central and Southern Florida Project” effectively cut the Everglades off from its water source, reduced the land area by half, and caused droughts, fires and disease.

1 Rappaport, Nina. “Marc Tsurumaki: Amphibious Tactics.” In Negotiated Terrains, 104-142. New Haven, Conn.: Yale School of Architecture, 2009.

46

Infrastructural Terrains: Allan Slamic

Datum: Heather Loeffler

Infrastructural Terrains: Anya A Grant

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

Allen Slamic interprets a transportation network as the framework for his proposal. He seeks to connect the lodge to a larger series of existing trails and roads. By giving priority to parking and an RV campground, he provides visitors with multiple options: to drive through, to camp, or to stay at the prefabricated lodges. He also incorporates a trellis that ties seperate program parts together, provides shade and natural cooling from the harsh climate, and invigorates the connection between architecture and nature.

Heather Loeffler applies a datum to the natural systems in the park by raising her proposal up, creating three permeable layers: a floating dock, lobby / guest rooms / information and services, and a recreational roof deck. Inground hammocks and skylights allow for connections between layers. A ramp allows access to parking while a floating dock system enables visitors to enter the water.

Anya Grant defines a hydrological network as the framework for her project.

She focuses on surface-treatment wetlands, imposing culverts through the existing levee and adding beds of remidiative plants that purify agricultural runoff as well as gray water from the lodge. Instead of raising her project on thin stilts, she instead creates concrete plinths that serve as a hidden superstructure for the rooms as well as the parking.

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

P R O G R A M A N A LY S I S INSERTING ‘WET’ PROGRAM INTO A ‘DRY’ NEIGHBORHOOD

48

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

F I LT R AT I O N F A C I L I T Y NATURALIZED WATER STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT

The modification of residential neighborhoods to better accommodate and integrate water should begin with a network of renewed drainage and water storage.

At the termination of the new water and pedestrian axes, a filtration center could provide an example of ideal construction methods and serve as an environmental core where water and people culminate and where water is stored, filtered and then pumped into the larger system. A constructed wetland would help slow water down in the event of heavy rain, and function as a sort of display of storage and management techniques for the neighborhood. constructed wetlands

horizontal subsurface flow basin 5000 ft

vertical flow basin 5000 ft

surface flow basin 10000 ft total 20000 ft water treatment facility

ultra violet filtration room 2000 ft pumps 2000 ft

groundskeeping / storage / mechanical 1200 ft education / recreation changing rooms 2000 ft interactive installations 4000 ft

observation decks 1000 ft

refreshment bar 800 ft

kitchen 800 ft

administrative offices 1200 ft lobby 1000 ft total 12000 ft

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

ADVA NCED WATER PU RIF ICATIO N FACILIT Y Mainstreet Architects & Planners Oxnard, Calinfornia 2013 In coordination with the Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment program (GREAT), the city of Oxnard reduces its impact on California’s stressed water sources by using reclaimed water instead of importing it. This purification facility will provide 25 million gallons a day for landscape or agricultural irrigation, industrial processes, or groundwater recharge. The building also incorporates multiple “green” features such as recycled building materials, natural ventilation systems, permeable paving, water conserving native plants and photo voltaic solar panels. water treatment facility

wet well 1900 ft2

pump floor 1900 ft2 electrical room #1 2000 ft2 electrical room #2 650 ft2

micro filtration/ ultra filtration building 7200 ft2

reverse osmosis building 10400 ft2

ultraviolet treatment facility 2200 ft2

decarbonators & finished water pumps 4000 ft2

chemical storage containment area 4000 ft2 constructed wetland 50000 ft2 education / administration

administrative offices 2400 ft2 gallery 1200 ft2 auditorium 1200 ft2

http://www.archdaily.com/451678/advanced-water-purification-facility-mainstreet-architects-planners-inc http://www.mainstreetarchitects.com/projects/government_institutional/index.html

50

total

90000 ft2

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

Q U N L I W E T L A N D PA R K Turenscape Haerbin, Heilongjiang, China 2010 Turenscape revives a dying wetland, cut off on four sides by paved highways and development, into an “urban storm water park”. They created a “necklace” of ponds and mounds to surround the current wetland, which serve as a filtering and cleansing buffer zone between nature and city. A series of pathways, raised boardwalks, and viewing towers allow visitors to experience the wetland, and provide structure for the different filtering ponds. grounded pathways raised walkways filtration ponds seperation burms viewing towers total area: 30 hectares or 3,200,000 ft2

http://www.archdaily.com/446025/qunli-stormwater-wetland-park-turenscape?ad_medium=widget&ad_name=more-from-office-article-show http://www.turenscape.com/english/projects/project.php?id=435

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

C O L U M B I A W A S T E W AT E R T R E AT M E N T S U P P O R T FA C I L I T Y Skylab Architecture Portland, Oregon 2012 Offices for the Bureau of Environmental Services engineering and construction management staff is oriented radially along the path of the sun. Site strategies mimic native habitats and provides an interactive, educational depiction of current water treatment programs. The building’s vegetated roof, or “encoroof” is an approachable example of sustainable storm water management for the city of Portland. landscape berms 8000 ft2 fractured basalt runoff bed 2500 ft2 vegetated roof 16000 ft2 lobby / entry / reception 1500 ft2 workspace 5000 ft2 meeting spaces 1700 ft2 resource room 2 @ 300 ft 600 ft2 restrooms 2 @ 150 ft 300 ft2 conference room 3 @ 100ft 300 ft2 total 12000 ft2

http://www.archdaily.com/451678/advanced-water-purification-facility-mainstreet-architects-planners-inc http://www.skylabarchitecture.com/#/columbiabuilding/

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THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

A I Y I R I V E R W AT E R F R O N T PA R K BLVD International Yinchuan, Ningxia, China 2013 In order to emphasize and utilize the ecological borders of a new area of the city Yinchuan, a serpentine pedestrian walkway not only ties together the city and the waterfront, but creates intimate as well as panoramic recreational experiences. The dynamic urban pathway is defined by a series of level changes: at water level, slightly below the surface, and perched above the treetops. total area 630000 ft2

http://www.archdaily.com/558663/waterfront-park-of-aiyi-river-blvd-international

53

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

S I T E A N A LY S I S LOW, WET AND SINKING

54

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

SITE CRITERIA REDEFINING RESILIENCY IN AREAS AT RISK

A closer look at the topographical, environmental, hydrological and infrastructural characteristics of New Orleans allows us to narrow in on the neighborhoods with the lowest elevations, most dramatic subsidence and greatest threat for future flooding. Criteria for site selection is based on four points:

1

L O W E L E VAT I O N current elevation at least 3 feet below sea level

2

EXPERIENCING LAND SUBSIDENCE sinking at least 1/8 of an inch per year

3

EXISTING NEUTRAL GROUND a typology of unoccupied green medians along most important roadways in the City

4

‘DRY’ NEIGHBORHOOD area at least 6 blocks from nearest open water feature but with opportunity to connect

55

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

CITY TOPOGRAPHY Ground Elevations Relative to Sea Level

above 12’ 9’ -12’ 6‘ - 9’ 3’ - 6’ 0’ - 3’

-3’ - 0’ -3’ - -6’ below -6’

56

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

NEIGHBORHOOD LOW GROUND Elevation-Based Flood Insurance Zones

-3’ - -6’ below -6’

57

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

CITY SUBSIDENCE Sinkage in the Last Century

1/2” 1/3” 1/4” 1/8” 1/16” inches per year

58

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

NEIGHBORHOOD HIGH GROUND Lateral Sections Showing High and Low Ground

1/16” inches per year

59

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

CITY NEUTRAL GROUNDS A Typology of Scaled Medians

extra large west end blvd

350’

large canal blvd 95’ elysian fields ave claiborne ave

95’ 75’

medium franklin ave napolean ave mlk jr blvd

65‘ 45’ 45’

small broadway st jefferson ave

60

8‘ 8’

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

NEIGHBORHOOD DISRUPTED GRID Division and Separation of the Street Grid

350’

m

n ave eon ave

small 65’ 45’

broadway st jefferson ave

8’ 8’

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

C I T Y “ PAV E , P I P E , P U M P ” Water Management Systems

pump station drainage zone water flow drainage

62

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

N E I G H B O R H O O D S U B S U R FA C E N E T W O R K Underground Drainage Routes

to 17th street canal

drainage network

to orleans ave canal

current subsurface drainage

current water flow direction

unaffected subsurface drainage

new water flow direction

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LAKEVIEW FACTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS 1 Campanella, Catherine. “West End.” Images of America: Lake Pontchartrain. < http://www.websites neworleans.com/lakepontchartrainimagesofamerica/id75.html> 2 “1919 Map of Canals” < http://www.websitesneworleans.com/lakepontchartrainimagesofamerica/ id90.html> 3 1942 West End Street Car 1947 Aerial of New Basin Canal Alexander Allison Collection, New Orleans. By Alexander Allison. New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division. <http://nutrias.org/~nopl/photos/allison/ allison.htm>.

64

The opening of the New Basin Canal in 1828 provided a major shipping and drainage artery, that stretched from the French Quarter to the Lakefront. It was 60’ wide and 8’ deep initially, and was widened to 100’ by 10’ deep. The map to the left from 1919 shows the canal which was initially called the New Orleans Navigation Canal.

Alongside the canal ran the West End Street Car that brought city dwellers out into the yet untouched swamp land of Lakeview and Metairie and to the Lakefront, Pontchartrain Beach, the Marina, the Southern Yacht Club and Spanish Fort.1

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

1 1948 West End Street Car with Stops along Canal Photographs New Orleans Streetcar Album. By H. George Friedman, Jr. circa 1948. University of Illinois. <http://web. engr.illinois.edu/~friedman/album/Album.htm>.

2 1950 Plan for West End Boulevard 3 1954 Progress of Interstate 10 Development Photographs Alexander Allison Collection, New Orleans. By Alexander Allison circa 1953. New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Division. <http://nutrias.org/~nopl/ photos/allison/allison.htm>.

66

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

The Canal was gradually filled, starting in the 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and the portion nearest the lake was paved to create the Pontchartrain Expressway (also called West End Boulevard) which connects directly to Interstate 10.

Although the four lane highway improved traffic in the area, the 350â&#x20AC;&#x2122; wide neutral ground in between the right of way created a disconnect in the neighborhood: a boundary between Lakeview and West End.

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

C O N C E P T U A L A N A LY S I S INVIGORATING UNDERUTILIZED GREEN SPACE

Currently, the West End Boulevard neutral ground is a 350â&#x20AC;&#x2122; wide largely unused green space. It is home to sparse vegetation and a bike path that favors one side of the community over the other. By incorporating a new canal for water retention and a woven pedestrian network for increased connectivity,

68

1

W E AV I N G W AT E R A N D P E O P L E

providing connectivity for pedestrians in the area

2

S L O W I N G A N D S T O R I N G W AT E R

adding surface water raises ground water and water table levels which helps to prevent soil subsidence

permanent water storage also helps with street flooding by providing more space for runoff during heavy rain

3

SCALED INTERVENTIONS

by categorizing the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neutral grounds into four sizes: extra large, large, medium and small, water interventions can be scaled and replicated

exposing water processes allows for a new intimacy and connectivity between land, water and people

4

E X P O S I N G W AT E R P R O C E S S E S

water movement, storage and drainage are hidden behind walls or underneath the ground

by merging public amenity with public awareness, and by accepting and accommodating water within the urban fabric, new orleans can redefine resilience

creating designated space for water in a neighborhood that suffers from flooding

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

before

after

before

after

350’

extra large

95’

large

45’

8’

medium

small

before

after

69

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

70

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

S I T E S T R AT E G Y NEW CANAL + SCALED INTERVENTIONS

DRY: REFRESHMENT BAR

WET: KAYAK RENTAL SHOP AND LAUNCH DOCK

PROTOTYPE: LARGE CANAL BLVD: 95’

DRY: SKATE PARK

PROTOTYPE: MEDIUM NAPOLEAN AVE: 75’

WET: SPLASH POOL

PROTOTYPE: SMALL CARROLLTON AVE: 20’

DRY: PICNIC AREA

WET: SPRINKLER PARK

71

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

B U I L D I N G S T R AT E G Y TRANSFORMING A PECULIARITY INTO AN EXTRAORDINARY WATER FEATURE A distinct structure is located on the northernmost portion of the West End Boulevard neutral ground: the abandoned Civil Defense Control Center. Constructed after WWII, it is a partially underground bunker around which an artificial hill was constructed for protection in the event of an emergency.

I am proposing to repurpose this unique building as a natatorium. Filtered and swimmable water would be pumped in from a series of constructed wetlands, existing in flux with seasonal rain amounts. Some days, the pool would be full, others, merely a puddle. The hill would remain as a lookout, celebrating this site as simultaneously the highest and lowest points in the neighborhood.

drawings courtesy of Stoffle & Finger Architects

72

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

74

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

SECTION A NATATORIUM

SECTION B SAUNA & CAULDARIUM

SECTION C UV FILTRATION AND PUMP ROOM

SECTION D CHANGING ROOMS

SECTION E ENTRY & ADMINISTRATION

75

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

0 ‘ HIGHEST ELEVATION

‘ BASE ELEVATION

GROUND

0‘ TYPICAL WATER TABLE LEVEL

76

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

77

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

78

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

79

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

80

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

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RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

CITY

NEIGHBORHOOD

PROPOSAL

TOPOGRAPHY

LOW GROUND

GREEN TO BLUE

GROUND ELEVATION RELATIVE TO SEA LEVEL

ELEVATION-BASED FLOOD INSURANCE ZONES

WEAVING CIRCULATION OF WATER AND PEOPLE

Lakeview’s average elevation is around -4 feet below sea level

Natural high ground occurs along the Mississippi River with lowlands near Lake Pontchartrain

Over 50% of the neighborhood is assigned Flood Insurance Zone AE which means there is a 1% chance of flooding per year, otherwise referred to as a 100-year floodplain

Over 60% of the city’s population lives below sea level

above 12’

6‘ - 9’

0’ - 3’

-3’ - -6’

9’ -12’

3’ - 6’

-3’ - 0’

below -6’

Creating more designated space for water in a neighborhood that suffers from flooding Providing connectivity for pedestrians in the neighborhood

CITY

NEIGHBORHOOD

PROPOSAL

SUBSIDENCE

HIGH GROUND

SURFACE FLOW

SINKAGE IN THE LAST CENTURY

NEIGHBORHOOD SECTIONS

SLOWING AND STORING WATER

In the early 20th century, advancements in infrastructural technology allowed for the back swamps to be drained and developed Eliminating water from the porous sediment caused it to settle and sink, and in a few decades, parts of Lakeview and Gentilly had sunk 3 to 6 feet below sea level

1/2”

1/3”

1/8”

1/4”

West End Boulevard’s neutral ground is at the highest elevation in the area

Adding surface water raises ground water and water table levels which helps to prevent soil subsidence

Both West End and Lakeview neighborhoods form “bowls” with the 17th Street Canal levee, West End Boulevard and Canal Boulevard as “rims”

Permanent water storage also helps with street flooding by providing more space for water during heavy rain

1/16” per year

ANOMOLY: EXTRA LARGE WEST END BLVD: 350’

ROOF PLAN 1” = 32’

DRY: REFRESHMENT BAR

CITY NEUTRAL GROUNDS A TYPOLOGY OF SCALED MEDIANS

medium

large 350’

canal blvd claiborne ave

95’ 75’

franklin ave napoleon ave

DISRUPTED GRID

PROTOTYPE

DIVISION AND SEPARATION OF THE STREET GRID

SCALED AND REPLICABLE INTERVENTIONS

There is currently a limited amount of streets and paths that cross the median, creating a feeling of separation in the area

Occasionally containing street cars or bike paths, these public spaces are largly underutilized

west end blvd

PROPOSAL

West End Boulevard is 350’ wide and serves as a barrier between the neighborhoods of West End and Lakeview

Important streets in New Orleans are typically divided by a median, or “neutral ground” which is usually planted and can range in width from 3 feet to 350 feet

extra large

NEIGHBORHOOD

By catagorizing the City’s neutral grounds into four sizes: Extra Large, Large, Medium and Small, water interventions can be scaled and replicated

PROTOTYPE: LARGE CANAL BLVD: 95’

Exposing water processes allows for a new intimacy and connectivity between land, water, and people in the city

WET: KAYAK RENTAL SHOP AND LAUNCH DOCK

small 65’ 45’

broadway st jefferson ave

8’ 8’

350’

95’

45’

8’

PROTOTYPE: MEDIUM NAPOLEAN AVE: 75’

DRY: SKATE PARK

CITY

NEIGHBORHOOD

PROPOSAL

“PAVE, PIPE, PUMP”

SUBSURFACE NETWORK

DRY TO WET

WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

UNDERGROUND DRAINAGE AND THE STREET GRID

EXPOSING PREVIOUSLY CONCEALED WATER PROCESSES

The city is divided into drainage subbasins with intricate and segregated subsurface piping systems Pump stations push water into drainage canals that direct water into the Lake Subbasin #12 contains 1250 acres of land that handles around 3,200,000 gallons of water in a heavy rain event

pump station

drainage zone

water flow

Currently, water travels with natural slope in the area into main pipes underneath Fleur de Lis Blvd and Canal Blvd respectively

Water movement, storage, and drainage are hidden behind walls or underneath the ground

Surface drainage can be implimented to direct water to the new canal and take pressure off of the existing system

By merging public amenity with public awareness, and by accepting and accomodating water within the urban fabric, New Orleans can start to define a new resilience

WET: SPLASH POOL

The proposed network reclaims 470 acres of the subbasin and diverts over a third of the normal volume of water

drainage

current subsurface drainage unaffected subsurface drainage

current water flow direction new water flow direction

PROTOTYPE: SMALL CARROLLTON AVE: 20’

DRY: PICNIC AREA

to 17th street canal

to orleans ave canal

WET: SPRINKLER PARK

SITE PLAN 1’ = 1/256”

RESILIENCY REVISED REMEDIATION AND RECREATION IN NEW ORLEANS WATER SYSTEMS

INTERVENTION PERSPECTIVES

S TAT E M E N T Resiliency in New Orleans must be redefined by converting an existing, rigid, and defensive approach to water management to a more integrated, flexible, and reciprocal strategy of urban planning. By mergring public amenity with public awareness, rightful authoirty can be given back to the natural systems of our chosen milieu through the recognition of flux as an element of design.

VISUAL EXPERIENCE

VISUAL EXPERIENCE

TACTILE EXPERIENCE

RECREATION

RECREATION MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE

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INTERVENTION PLANS 1’ = 1/16”

SUITABLE FOR USE

ULTRA VIOLET RADIATION

SURFACE FLOW

VERTICAL FLOW

HORIZONTAL SUBSURFACE FLOW

RETENTION

REMEDIATION MOVEMENT OF WATER

THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

SECTION A NATATORIUM

SECTION A

NATATORIUM SAUNA CAULDARIUM

SECTION B

SECTION B SAUNA & CAULDARIUM

MAINTENANCE ENTRANCE

GROUNDSKEEPING/ MAINTENANCE MECHANICAL CONTROL ROOM ULTRAVIOLET FILTRATION BED

SECTION C

PUMPS

REFLEXOLOGY WALK WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM

MEN’S LOCKER ROOM

SECTION C UV FILTRATION AND PUMP ROOM

SECTION D

LOBBY FRONT DESK ADMINISTRATION OFFICES SECTION E

SECTION D CHANGING ROOMS

SECTION E ENTRY & ADMINISTRATION

NATATORIUM PLAN 1’ = 1/16”

LATERAL SECTIONS 1’ = 1/8”

+20 ‘ HIGHEST ELEVATION

+4 ‘ BASE ELEVATION 0‘ GROUND

-10‘ TYPICAL WATER TABLE LEVEL

LONGITUDINAL SECTION 1’ = 3/32”

F I N A L BOARD 83

RESILIENCY REVISED MEHAFFEY

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THESIS 2016 DESMARAIS

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