commentGlobal Green Announces New Orleans Winners
Global Green USA president Matt Petersen and design jury chairman Brad Pitt announced at the end of August 2006 the winners of the Sustainable Design Competition for New Orleans. The competition asked participants to create sustainable housing and community spaces for the Holy Cross Neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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The jury was made up of community members, including Pam Dashiell, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, as well as architects and technical experts, including Bob Berkebile, of BNIM Architects; Julie Eizenberg, of Koning Eizenberg Architecture; and David Orr, chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. As part of its sustainable rebuilding initiative, Global Green, the U.S. affiliate of Green Cross International, with help from its sponsors, hopes to purchase land and begin construction of the winning project in late 2006.
Andrew Kotchen and Matthew Berman, both of Workshop/apd in New York, won the main prize with their design, GreeN.O.LA (referring to the acronym for New Orleans, Louisiana). Two other projects were also recognized: Frederic Schwartz, of Frederic Schwartz Architects in New York, received a Certificate of Excellence for Sustainability for his NOLA shotgunLOFT, and Eskew, Dumez, and Ripple of New Orleans received a Certificate of Excellence for Architectural Distinction for its project, Breathe.
Kotchen and Berman’s design features a system of modules, transported by barge on the Mississippi River, assembled to create a 12-unit multifamily housing building, six single-family homes, and a community center. Each module uses a green roof to filter stormwater into a bladder in the ceiling, where it is fed into a geothermal loop to regulate interior temperatures.
Collected water will also be filtered, fed through solar water heaters, and used for showers and other domestic needs. The design uses engineered lumber for structural elements and recycled plastic lumber for the façade. Kotchen and Berman also call for an enlarged retail corridor in the neighborhood as well as a farmers’ market and a community garden.
For more information:
GlobalGreen USA
Washington, D.C.
202-222-0700
www.globalgreen.org
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