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The Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward was the site of the competition, where multidisciplinary teams were asked to design six single-family houses, a mixed-use building which included apartments and community services, and the site itself. Though entrants were encouraged to think beyond the site, balancing sustainability with affordability was a key component of the competition.

Six finalist entries were announced today on NBC’s Today Show, which will be further refined over the next month.

The entry by Litmus Architects stressed the site’s adjacency to the Mississippi River by locating the mixed-use building at the southern edge, creating a River Boulevard and open-air amphitheater (Figs. 1,2) at the levee for concerts and parades.

Fig. 2 Partial south-north section through site. From left to right - levee/amphitheater; River Boulevard; mixed-use building (in color); the Commons with playgrounds, gardens and wetlands; houses.

The organizing strategy for the site (Fig. 3) was a north-south grid of walls that could rise at the north end to become pre-engineered foundations for houses (saving the owners time and money), define the playgrounds, wetlands and public gardens (Fig. 3) at the heart of the site, and extend south across the levee into the river to become breakwaters to control erosion of the banks.

Fig. 3 Aerial view of site from northwest.

Fig. 4 The Commons at the heart of the site - playgrounds, gardens, and wetlands.

The entry also concentrated on learning from the inside/outside spaces often seen in New Orleans and the low-tech ways of shading places, keeping out the sun in summer while admitting natural light and breezes. Some striking spatial compositions resulted, such the internal courtyard in the mixed-use building with the upper floor apartments linked by bridges (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5 View of second- and third-story bridges in courtyard of mixed-use building

See the competition boards for full information, or see us online at the Global Green Semifinalists pages.

Litmus Architects is Ben Gauslin, Jim Goodspeed, and Dave Hampton. Biological and landscape consultation was provided by Michael Repkin Designs.