HISTORIC GREEN AT WORK: our 2010 projects
Green Buildings
Green Homes: Radiant Barriers, CFLs & More
Working with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, Louisiana’s advocacy group for fair and equitable energy policies, and the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development, up to twenty homes will be targeted for radiant barrier installation, weatherization, and other needed repairs. Repair work in the past has included: restoring/repairing windows, prepping and painting (interior and exterior), replacing damaged beams and floor joists, removing siding, sorting salvageable wood, sink repair, removal and replacing of caulking, fence repair, tree stump removal, wood rot repair, block wall repair, roof flashing repair, sidewalk and stoop repair, and more.
Scope of Work: Volunteer teams will work with property owners to install radiant barriers, replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and assist with weatherization in homes throughout the area.
Green Restoration: 5200 Dauphine
Restoration of 5200 Dauphine Street, a Preservation Resource Center (PRC) property in the Holy Cross Neighborhood, is a continuation of Historic Green’s work from 2008 and 2009. In 2008, volunteers deconstructed the house and salvaged materials for reuse. Only the foundation of the old structure remains on the lot. With support from both the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the U.S. Green Building Council, PRC has applied for a grant through the Kresge Foundation to reconstruct this historic house, modified in a way to achieve LEED Platinum standards. The building will be used as a headquarters for community groups, chiefly the Lower Ninth Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED). CSED works closely with the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and serves as a catalyst in the community’s plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
Scope of Work: This year we begin with framing new walls.
Green Restoration: 5450 Dauphine
Owned by PRC, the house is at 5450 Dauphine Street. PRC homes are targeted for restoration work throughout the historic areas of city. Working with Historic Green on these projects we combine both historical preservation work with sustainability ideas, particularly around the reuse of materials and weatherization.
Scope of Work: Tasks could include removing lathe, installing rigid foam insulation, window and door weatherization, exterior weatherboard repair, painting and caulking.
Green Restoration: 603 Forstall
Another PRC house, 603 Forstall Street. PRC homes are targeted for restoration work throughout the historic areas of city. Working with Historic Green on these projects we combine both historical preservation work with sustainability ideas, particularly around the reuse of materials and weatherization
Scope of Work: Tasks could include constructing a rain screen from 5450’s removed lathe, exterior painting, a rain garden and more.
Green Restoration: 616 Caffin
The PRC house at 616 Caffin. PRC homes are targeted for restoration work throughout the historic areas of city. Working with Historic Green on these projects we combine both historical preservation work with sustainability ideas, particularly around the reuse of materials and weatherization
Scope of Work: Tasks could include gutting and cleaning w/ focus on recycling and material reuse, deconstruct addition, and more.
Green Spaces
Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands
Bayou Bienvenue lies just to the northeast of the Lower Ninth Ward. For centuries it was a productive cypress swamp ecosystem, and residents caught fish and crabs in its waters. The wetland also served to protect the neighborhood, and indeed all of New Orleans, from hurricane storm surges. After a navigation channel was excavated through the state’s eastern marshlands, saltwater crept into the wetland, killing off the cypress and reducing the area to open water interrupted only by the occasional stump. The entire community is committed to the restoration of this valuable ecosystem, and they’ve constructed a viewing platform to promote awareness and wetland education. Historic Green will be taking steps to help make the overlook platform live up to its full potential.
Scope of Work: Working with Sierra Club, volunteers may construct additional benches out of reclaimed cypress, add extra step at the bottom of the stairs, add pea gravel to existing gravel pathway, Paint existing trashcans w/ art.
Delery Street Playground Repairs & Cleanup
Located near Jackson Barracks and the Mississippi River Levee, the Delery Street Playground was designed and built by residents of Holy Cross more than 15 years ago, serving as a popular community green space ever since. Historic Green volunteers in 2008 devoted their energies to site cleanup and repair of playground structures. In 2009, this work continues, with the assistance of middle school volunteers from Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.
Scope of Work: Volunteers may recover play area surface with Rubber Mats/Mulch or Pea Gravel, install solar lightening, design/build benched and shade structure, construct a vertical tire ladder with provided materials, general structure repair and fence repair, seal the wooden structure, and plant trees.
Rain Gardens
A rain garden is a shallow depression filled with native plants that allows storm water runoff a place to filter and infiltrate. If there is not a suitable location for a rain garden on the property, a filter strip and landscaping with native plants will increase storm water treatment. By taking responsibility for the quality and quantity of storm water that runs off each property, one can decrease downstream flooding, reduce pollutants in receiving waters and increase property values through low maintenance landscaping.This year, we will continue to plant rain gardens in public spaces, front yards, and commercial areas where pools of sitting water can be found after a hard rain.
Scope of Work: Volunteers will design, dig, and plant up to 20 rain gardens through the neighborhood.
Green Communities
Lower 9th Ward Village Repairs
The Lower 9th Ward Village is an emerging community center founded by resident Mack McClendon after Hurricane Katrina. Housed in a former sugar cane research facility at 1001 Charbonnet Street in the Holy Cross Neighborhood, this new community space will soon be home to job training programs such as kitchen management and food prep, mentoring programs for youth, computer training classes; meeting space available for all community groups; and meals for the homeless and elderly.
Scope of Work: Volunteers will participate in the repairing windows, add security bars and locks; install a drop ceiling and insulation in the front room; increase security lighting onsite; repair portions of wooden fence around the property; install solar panels; adjust perimeter grading for water-proofing.
St. Claude Avenue Cleanup
Saint Claude Avenue is one of two major commercial corridors in the Lower Ninth Ward, running along the north edge of the Holy Cross Neighborhood from the Industrial Canal east to the St. Bernard Parish line. The comprehensive street clean-up will concentrate on this important thoroughfare to revitalize a commercial/residential district.
Scope of Work: Teams will focus on properties between Forstall and Tupelo Streets to clear debris, plant trees and landscaping, construct rain gardens, complete miscellaneous walkway and building repairs, install insulation and radiant barriers, and weatherstrip doors and windows.