Librarians in New Orleans for ALA 2011 saw a much different Big Easy than the devastated city they encountered in 2006, when the American Library Association Annual Conference was the first major convention to return to the city after Hurricane Katrina. It’s been a long struggle, but evidence of recovery is everywhere. This photo essay offers an overview of major rehab efforts and new construction that many ALA-goers may not have had an opportunity to see.
The essay begins with an aerial shot over the Treme/Lafitte neighborhood in New Orleans showing construction of new housing replacing the Lafitte Housing Project that closed after Hurricane Katrina. When construction is complete, the project will feature 1,500 homes and apartments: a one-for-one replacement of all 900 subsidized apartments and the development of an additional 600 homes for sale to working families and first-time homeowners.
Next is the Rosa Keller branch of New Orleans Public Library, which opened in 1993 in a 1918 Broadmoor residence. Major flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina destroyed the collection, buckled wood floors, and infested the building with mold. The historic Keller home is being restored and will operate as a community center. The 1990s addition has been torn down and will be replaced by a LEED-certified addition that will house the library and computer center. The renovation and expansion is being funded, in part, by a $2-million grant secured by the Broadmoor Improvement Association.
The next photo is of the NOPL banner in Broadmoor.
The Edward Hynes Elementary School in Lakeview was destroyed by Katrina floodwaters and is now being rebuilt at its original location.
The temporary Lakeview branch of New Orleans Public Library is located in a middle class neighborhood that was inundated by 15–20 feet of Katrina floodwaters.
NOPL’s Robert E. Smith Regional branch is under construction in the Lakeview neighborhood. The original branch at this location opened in 1956. The interior of the library’s first floor was completely destroyed by Katrina flooding. After being served by a bookmobile parked in front of the building for a few years, a temporary branch in a trailer two blocks down Harrison Avenue has opened.
The temporary pumps and floodgates pictured here were erected by the Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina to help protect New Orleans from future storm surges. These pumps protect the 17th Street Canal at Lake Pontchartrain along the boundary between Orleans and Jefferson parishes. Hurricane Katrina caused a breach in the flood wall along the east side of the canal, resulting in the flooding of the Lakeview area and parts of Metairie in neighboring Jefferson Parish.
Construction continues on the new building for the Jefferson Parish library’s Lakeshore branch. After Hurricane Katrina, the Lakeshore library operated in a temporary structure made possible by SOLINET’s Gulf Coast Libraries Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
After Katrina, most of the housing projects were closed and then demolished. The next photo shows the site of the former sprawling and crime-ridden St. Bernard housing project. It has been redeveloped as Columbia Parc, a 466-unit mixed-income rental housing. One third of the units will be market rate, one third will be public housing, and one third will receive tax credits.
The flooded Norman Mayer “Gentilly” branch of NOPL was demolished after Katrina. While the construction of a larger, permanent structure progresses, the Gentilly neighborhood is served by a temporary branch located in a former Rainbow store in a business strip near the old branch.
The East New Orleans Regional branch was demolished to make way for construction of a new branch library. The new library will be more than twice the size of the old branch, and the cost of construction will be covered by FEMA public-assistance grants and Community Development Block Grants.
NOPL’s Martin Luther King branch reopened in late 2007 after being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina two years before. The Recovery School District renovated the building, and the Gates Foundation’s Gulf Coast Libraries Project funded its operation for three years at the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology in the Lower Ninth Ward.
Actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation has completed approximately 75 of a planned 150 homes in the devastated Lower 9th Ward. The homes are made available to homeowners who lost their residences in the Lower 9th neighborhood, and feature state-of-the-art green design elements including solar power, spray foam insulation, tankless water heaters, and Energy Star appliances and fixtures.
Despite progress made—such as Make It Right homes and other private and public initiatives—much of the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans remains a neighborhood in ruins. With only a tiny fraction of the former residents able or willing to move back to their former neighborhood, the city faces huge infrastructure challenges in providing the area with adequate water, sewage, fire and police protection, public transportation, and schools.
The final photo shows the 1940 WPA-built NOPL Alvar branch, which was refurbished in 2006 by a partnership that included American Library Association vendors and volunteers spearheaded by Library Journal, Baker and Taylor, Capital One, Citadel Builders, E. Eean McNaughton Architects of New Orleans, and Meyer, Schrerer & Rockcastle, an architectural and interior design firm based in Minneapolis.
Photos ©2011 Jackson Hill, Jackson Hill Photography LLC
