New Orleans

By Micah Jacobson

In studio this semester we are working with the Greater Treme Consortium in New Orleans. You may recognize Treme from the recent cable TV show. Treme is a neighborhood rich in history and tradition. For part of our project we took a trip to New Orleans to see and walk the streets.


I arrived in New Orleans Saturday and took an additional tour of the lower Seventh ward; the area hit the worst from the hurricane. The devastation in the area is amazing even after five years of re-growth. As I drove my car down a deteriorated street through a jungle of weeds I would pass by a concrete slab, then a destroyed home, then a home newly rebuilt. There were scatters of re-growth, but on the large part I found the area still in need of repair.


During my trip I looked at the Make It Right homes. This is a program that has been promoted by Brad Pit to build new homes in the lower Seventh that will provide protection from future flood by elevating the first floor. These homes were very interesting to look at, and though they are a great effort to help people in the community, I couldn’t but help notice they looks out of place. Is the area being rebuilt or newly built?

In an area so rich with history and culture, these houses seemed to ignore that and create a new culture and identity to the area. They are an effort by good people to rebuild the area, and they do rebuild it. The question is: Does the neighborhood still have the same character as it did before. I think only the people living there could tell you this. They are the ones who created the culture and continue to live it.


In our project we are working to improve housing, rebuild community and provide a means by where the people of Treme can interact and overcome recent destruction and division. Does an urban designer create culture and community? Or do the people create them? What line is there between designer and inhabitant and where does the role of designer end? These are questions I find myself asking as I ponder the role that we can play to help rebuild this community.


In a profession that has an opportunity to affect so many people’s lives an architect or urban designer needs to be very thoughtful when pondering changes in the habitations of others. I do not know all of the answers yet, but seek to find them, and will always reflect thoughtfully on how my actions affect others.