New Orleans, Louisiana (USA) 2011
Small Center for Collaborative Design, Tulane University, USA
New Orleanians, like many Americans, face an interconnected series of negative health trends related to fresh food access, lifestyle habits, and education. Parallel to food access and affordability issues, the youth of New Orleans lack job opportunities and the income and skills that come with first-time jobs.
Furthermore, the few jobs available to New Orleans high school aged students are in the fast-food service industry which compounds nutritional issues, and shift times often compromise students’ academic growth. Grow Dat Youth Farm was founded by a former New Orleans high school teacher who was looking to address these dual needs of youth job and leadership opportunities paired with fresh food access and education.
In 2011, two spring semester studios designed a 6,000 square foot urban farming campus and a four-acre farm site plan for organic farming and sophisticated water and soil management. With approvals from the Grow Dat staff, City Park, and State Fire Marshall construction of the campus began. Students from the Tulane School of Architecture built the facility from foundation to finished space in a two-semester sequence. Subcontractors were hired for more complex crane operating and electrical work.
In line with Grow Dat’s organizational goals of sustainability, responsibility, and integrity, the campus’ seven repurposed shipping container structures form the structural base for all floors and roofs and spaces on site allowing foundations that do not disturb old growth oak and cypress trees.
All rainfall is sequestered on site, all grey-water is bio-filtered on site, all black-water is composted on site, and the farm/classroom was built largely with recycled and repurposed materials. Additionally, Grow Dat uses a former golf course fairway, rethinking the target users, use, and potential impacts of this shared public park space.
Client: Grow Dat Youth Farm.
Collaborators: Grow Dat Youth Farm; City Park New Orleans; Tulane University; Clean Plate Projects; New Orleans Food and Farm Network.
Tutors: Scott Bernhard (Campus Design Lead, Architect of Record); Dan Etheridge (Coordinator, Project Manager); Abigail Feldman (Site Design Lead); Zach Lamb; Emilie Taylor Welty (Construction Manager); Seth Welty; Sam Richards.
Students: Mira Asher; Zin Min Aye; Steven Baker; Hee Cho; Sophie Dardant; Matt Decotiis; Rachel Finkelstein; Sean Fisher; Patrick Franke; Marianne Graffam; Seneca Gray; Ellen Hailey; Katie Healey; Natalia Hidalgo; Jade Jiambutr; Lindsey Kiefer; Mike Landry; Emile LeJeune; Vicky Leung; Sam Levin; Jason Levy; Marda Lugar; Mary Beth Luster; Jeremy Maloney; Rebecca Miller; Oren Mitzner; Ian O’Cain; Ellanny Page; Justin Park; Robert Pekara; Fernando Polo; Allison Powell; Cameron Ringness; Julie Sanders; Allison Schiller; Justin Siragusa; Christopher Tellone; Ana Lucia Teran; William Trakas; Claire Tritschler; Erin Vaughn; Nichole Woggon; Brad Rohman; Michael Welsh; Jen Wickham.
Research question: How can we address these dual needs of youth job and leadership opportunities paired with fresh food access andeducation?
Links: https://small.tulane.edu/project/grow-dat-youth-farm
Small Center for Collaborative Design
11-50, Architecture, Client-funded, Collaboration, Curricular, Graduates, Permanent, Students with tutor, Tulane University, Undergraduate, USA, Years