Spring Greening

Historic Green in Eco-Structure Magazine

Check out Historic Green featured in Eco-Structure Magazine here.  Historic Green Chair and Co-founder Jeremy Knoll is interviewed about HG discussing why we exists and where we are going. 

Call for Papers: NOLA's Green Rebuilding

Touring the Armstrong School

The Louis Armstrong Elementary School at St. Claude and St. Maurice is one of our featured venues as part of this year’s Historic Green. Activities at the school included a structure walk-through (led by deconstruction experts and former FEMA inspectors), followed by a design charrette to generate ideas for the use of the abandoned building as a community arts space. Finally, volunteer teams worked on site beautification, to clean up the school’s front green space and landscaping the surrounding area with hardy, native plants.

The Preservation Resource Center provided this terrific slideshow of the building assessment tour on March 11 – and featuring our very own Heather Gay.



In addition, the National Trust’s online Preservation Magazine featured a story on the school’s restoration plans – and Historic Green’s involvement in the cleanup:

“This month, there's new hope for an abandoned New Orleans school that was one of the first to be integrated in the Deep South during the Civil Rights Era.

The Leona Tate Foundation for Change, which incorporates tomorrow [March 18], will raise money to renovate the McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School in the Ninth Ward as "a Civil Rights museum that can attract people from all over the nation," says Rev. John Moore, foundation chair.

The 1929 structure (now called the Louis D. Armstrong Elementary School) was shuttered before Katrina, when floodwaters damaged the first floor. The school district plans to mothball the facility, having concluded that it will cost $8.8 million to repair and $10 million to replace.”

You can read all of “New Life for New Orleans School and Civil Rights Landmark?” here.

Majora!

PHOTO: Amy King

Historic Green’s Keynote Speaker, Majora Carter, drew a crowd of more than 200 yesterday to hear her message of green collar jobs and hope for rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward as a vital, thriving New Orleans community. Definitely a highlight of this year’s event, she packed the house at All Souls Episcopal Church & Community Church, formerly a Walgreens store. Majora’s become nationally known as an advocate for environmental justice since founding Sustainable South Bronx (where she pioneered green-collar job training ) and is now head of the Majora Carter Group, LLC, a green-economic development consulting firm. Major is also a part of our Historic Green Advisory Krewe.

We’re extremely proud and honored to host Majora Carter as our lead voice this year!

Historic Green Summit at Greenbuild

What an amazing day, where so much came together for the Lower 9th Ward! Leaders of Historic Green brought together Rick Fedrizzi, Bob Berkebile, USGBC staff, Charles Allen III, Pam Dashiell, leaders of Make It Right, John Williams, and many others for an hour-long meeting. Conversation flowed comfortably from pressing needs expressed by the Neighborhood Association, to experienced recommendations for how to best serve the economy, to lessons learned from on-the-ground construction services and recommendations of specific project types which build on the core competencies of the volunteers and Advisors.

What emerged was a concensus for a powerfully focused plan, which will maximize volunteered labor and expertise for lasting effect.

Presentation at the University of Minnesota

As part of a thank you for the USGBC Mississippi Headwaters Chapter (MN) www.usgbcmn.org for helping to fund the U of M students' trip to NOLA, Jodi Wilson gave a presentation on the experiences the students had working in Holy Cross.  I introduced Jodi and talked about why we felt it was important to help fund the students' trip.  We did our presentation a couple weeks ago, but I thought it would be nice to share, and I've been thinking a lot, especially after Jeremy gave us his "by the numbers" list! Download historic_green_new_orleans_u_of_m.pdf

At the end, one of the professors read some of the students' writings on their trip, and I found it to be so encouraging and inspiring.  One of the things that stuck out to me was the comment that in NOLA, people ask you how you are, and they really want to know.  And twenty minutes later, you're still talking!
The first day I was in Louisiana was October 8, 2005.  I had spent 10 days in Washington, DC, for training, and then I landed in Baton Rouge.  I had no idea where anything was, and I was trying to pick up the keys for the apartment I was going to be living in for the next four months.  I was tired, hot, and lost, and close to tears.  In the parking lot at the Super Target, this woman came up to me and asked me if she could help with anything.  I said I was lost, and we started talking.  She gave me directions, and I was actually able to just walk over to where I needed to go.  When I got back to my car, she had left me a note with her phone number and address, and had invited me to dinner.  This would not have happened in Minnesota or Nevada or Utah - the other states where I've lived.  This experience really helped shape my whole experience living in post Katrina/Rita Baton Rouge, and part of why I feel like I need to keep giving back to Louisiana.

And I can't wait for 2009 Historic Green! 

Historic Green at Make It Right

Some of the Historic Green "Krewe" took some time out of their work schedule to visit the Make It Right groundbreaking ceremonies on Sunday – joining Brad Pitt, former President Bill Clinton and a cast of thousands in the Lower 9th Ward.

Walking History & Live on the Levee

Earlier this week, after a long day of volunteering, a group of students (see picture) gradually gathered around Mack and Smitty (referred to as “walking history” here) to ask questions about the neighborhood’s past, present and future – it was quite an inspiring moment to see the “dots connect one another”.

Despite some logistical complications, LIVE on the LEVEE came together last night beautifully...our volunteers were joined by the Make It Right volunteers for about four hours, and Sherman Bernard’s band played until sundown. It was quite a thing to see!

by Jeremy Knoll

Historic Green Lectures

Our stellar line-up of speakers on Saturday offered incredible insights into historic preservation, sustainable design, greening communities, social justice – and how the Lower Ninth Ward has in fact become the perfect setting for achieving all of these in one place: "Historic Green". The newly-restored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School at Caffin & Claiborne was the host site for this series of morning lectures.

Our special guest and keynote speaker was Rick Fedrizzi, founding chairman, President & CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). What an honor to have Rick join us! He posed, above, with Ryan Evans, Chair of the national Emerging Green Builders, and the amazing crew from Syracuse University.

Speakers also included: Bill Dupont, AIA, of UT-San Antonio, and Emily Wadhams, with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, on “Sustainable Preservation”; Rick Denhart of Mercy Corps on “Sustainable Deconstruction”; Dr. Hazel Denhart, Portland State University, on “Social Capital and Sustainability”; and Bill Robinson, a licensed general contractor from California, on “Moisture Management Practices”.

Historic Green Begins

Today's Day One of the 2008 Historic Green event in Holy Cross of the Lower Ninth Ward.

Several organizers have arrived in town – including Jeremy Knoll from Kansas City and Susannah Tuttle from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina – and are working with Mac McClendon of the Lower 9th Ward Village and several neighborhood organizers to get everything ready.

The Village will be our 2008 event headquarters: it's a great space at 1001 Charbonnet Street undergoing reconstruction to become an important community center for the area. At the Village, we'll be holding orientation and safety training, distributing tools and generally getting all of our work crews pointed in the right direction to their job sites. This is also the place for tours and other special activities. Stay tuned for more.