Honor Award
Big Old Tree; New Big Easy, using New Orleans' native trees to structure a new plan for Iberville and the Lafitte Corridor
Karen Lutsky, Student ASLA, Graduate, University of Pennsylvania
Faculty Advisors: David Gouverneur and Nicolas Pevzner
Close Me!Current Site Attributes: Iberville and the Lafitte Corridor are currently surrounded by cultural landmarks and strong neighborhoods, major drainage lines run beneath the ground and there are a number of proposed projects gaining popularity within the community that would take down I-10 and secure the corridor as a greenway.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 1 of 15
Close Me!Hydrological Context and Issues: New Orleans' has many critical hydrological issues. Current management is focused on hard edged canals and pumping the water out, but these strategies are not working and there is a drastic need for the city to rethink its water management tactics.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 2 of 15
Close Me!Site Disconnection and Isolation: Iberville and the Lafitte Corridor suffer from disconnection and isolation caused by uninviting wide streets, fences, lack of through streets, and an abundance of neighboring vacant lots that lack character or social function.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 3 of 15
Close Me!Inspiration from the Trees of New Orleans: New Orleans' trees add incredible character to areas where they have been preserved; along certain boulevards, within City and Audubon Parks, and even within Iberville.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 4 of 15
Close Me!Big, Old Trees as Markers of Sustainability: These three big, old tree typologies are all well adapted and socially significant and each have specific attributes that can be utilized to improve the hydrological, social and economic function of this site.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 5 of 15
Close Me!Proposed Plan: The new Iberville and Lafitte Corridor becomes a destination area within the city that only offers new social programming and a pecan industry, but also promotes a softer water management strategy that focuses on using the trees and land to soak up/in the water instead of pumping it out.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 6 of 15
Close Me!Phasing and Flexibility: The striations and the planting are meant to be flexible to the future needs of the area. Certain trees are managed to grow old, while others might be planted for a nursery that will continually transplant the trees out into the community. Management will allow for playing fields and gardens when needed.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 7 of 15
Close Me!Movement System: Mass transit is increased around the park while the park itself remains walk-bike friendly. The striated patterning of the trees allow for there to be a constant pull of movement up and down the corridor whether on the path or not, while at the same time creating constant revealing of new spatial experience for those on the path.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 8 of 15
Close Me!Economic and Social Program: Pecan harvesting offers a new industry and social programming for the corridor. It connects local schools and creates a new hub and work focus for voluntourists, tourists who also volunteer their time, who have become popular in the post-Katrina New Orleans.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 9 of 15
Close Me!Water System: Striated ground plane promotes soaking and multiple levels of flooding capability of the corridor to reduce pressure on the city’s drainage pumps while the trees to help mitigate the water through transpiration.
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 10 of 15
Close Me!Program for Iberville and Lower Lafitte Corridor
Download Hi-Res ImageImage: Karen Lutsky
Image 12 of 15
Project Statement
'Big Old Tree; New Big Easy' recognizes New Orleans' old, native trees as purest forms of sustainability and seeks to harness and build upon their inherent ecological adaptations and social significance. By recognizing the trees as mitigators of water, shapers and influencers of social space, and sources of industry, the plan envisions how native trees could be used to revitalize and strengthen the hydrological, social, and economic conditions of Iberville and the Lafitte Corridor.
Project Narrative
—2011 Student Awards Jury
Introduction
Trees have long been a critical piece of New Orleans' identity. From its swamp origins to the enormous members of the 'Live Oak Society' found within its parks, the city has long valued the function, the beauty, and the role these trees have played in its economy and its history. It seems natural then to look to these monuments of sustainability in the designing of a future New Orleans landscape.
Currently Iberville is a run-down, half-empty, public housing project and the Lafitte Corridor is swath of vacant, under-utilized land. In addition to being severely disconnected and lacking vitality, Iberville and the Lafitte Corridor suffer from the same hydrological issues as the rest of the city. Fortunately though, located on relatively high ground and being so close in proximity to strong New Orleans cultural life such as the French Quarter, Congo Square, Treme, and St. John's Bayou, the site offers itself up to be prime for re-vitalization and sustainable development.
Proposal
The plan for a new Iberville and Lafitte Corridor begins and ends with the trees; how they can help manage water through high rates of transpiration, stabilize the currently sinking ground with their extensive root systems, connect neighborhoods and promote recreation with shaded alleys, act as outdoor classrooms, be managed for production of valued goods such as nuts and wood, and how they can harbor and nurture the growth of a strong community.
To promote flexibility and adaptability, the striated planting plan allows for typologies to shift and respond to the wetness of the ground plane and be easily managed for needs of the community while keeping a constant structure that visually connects through the whole of the corridor and allows for unique spatial experiences for those on the path. The ground is carved to hold water and promote on-site saturation while also allowing for greater flooding capacity during a large storm event.
The lower Lafitte Corridor and a renovated Iberville become examples of how these trees also help structure and characterize more cultural program heavy areas such as a large outdoor theater, a sculpture park, a new outdoor market and plaza, and a restaurant row. The versatile structural nature and incredible character of these trees help to give this site a true New Orleans identity while sustaining a highly functional hydrologic, social, economic landscape that can be adapted and developed in the coming decades.
Additional Project Credits
Sources
University of Flowrida IFAS Extension School of Forest Resources and Conservation
USGS
Friends of Lafitte Corridor Greenway Plan
Dutch Dialogues