Historic Preservation in New Orleans - Essay Example

Topic:  The Greenest Preserved Historical Places In New Orleans Introduction Historical preservation is all about saving and restoring existing structures and historic sites. By preserving the environment, historic preservation saves valuable assets in which large amounts of energy and vital resources have been ventured. New Orleans is one of the countries located in Louisiana along river Mississippi. This country is known for its greenest attractive sites and is culture by short mild winters and hot, humid summers (Poesch, 26). New Orleans is one of the countries with the best greenest preserved historical places all over the world. These attractions therefore, greatly attract a large numbers of tourists who come to visit various places all over the country. The country has good tourism and hospitality hence enjoy a lager number of tourists every season. In this country tourism is one of the largest and most vital sectors in the economy (Poesch, 49). It is proud to amongst one of the states with several historic structures and districts. In order to uphold this status, New Orleans has come up with history preservation law which allows for designation of properties with or without the owners consent. This has been made much easier as the owner have been compensated through TDR law that facilitates the transfer of unused rights in development from properties having historical rights to those in other locations with historic landmarks(Poesch, 342). Back in 2007, New Orleans established the preservation salvage store with the sole aim of preserving the identity and architecture of the state. The store is used as a place to keep donated material from demolished structures. These materials are then resold to other people at low and affordable prices. Through this initiative, numerous architectural features have been reused into the famous housing store in New Orleans therefore ensuring the preservation of the rich multicultural inheritance. New Orleans is known world over of its outstanding, unique architectural designs ranging from cottages made of Creole to huge mansions on the St. Charles Avenue. Several architectural styles ranging from baroque cabildo to the considered modernist skyscrapers found in the central business district (Poesch, 276). The stores have other importance in New Orleans in that it plays a greater role in “greening” of New Orleans. For instance those materials salvaged from sand fills are environmentally safe and therefore advisable for use in rebuilding and renovation of homes. Instead of constructing new structures, the store provides an option of reinvesting in the cities’ present housing stock (Poesch, 92). Many might be wondering why New Orleans has been so much into advocating for building new “green” structures instead of utilizing those that are already built. It has been proven that reusing an old water bottle is a great idea instead of buying a new one. For this reason the question of why not using the old building then instead of constructing new ones? Because of this, different line of thoughts (new Orleans city council and Vieux carre commission-a conservationist group, have clashed over the idea of installation of solar panel on the roof tops in the French quarter. The council recommended that the solar panels are to be black and be placed at an angle which will blend best with the roof color. This idea was welcome by most residence who said that it was in line with objective of making French quarter an exciting, habitable community. The solar panel to be installed would in deed provide energy that can be utilized by the residence and thereby reducing their cost of living in terms of electricity cost, this was the point being posed by the city council (Poesch, 187). According to Alter, a professor at the school of interior design, Ryerson University, best way forward to combat problems resulting from climate change is by focusing less on the “green gizmo” improvements and rather on the common sense plan of old structures. In his argument he insist that more emphasize needs to be put on learning concepts from heritage buildings. The old concepts that were applied in building of houses include but not restricted to shutters, double hung windows, awnings, porches, vines and trees. These concepts made the house more comfy. To substantiate his point, he further notes that studies in Canada and the U.S have shown the traditional houses have outstanding in energy saving. Studies have also shown that old buildings may be just as sustainable, if not supplementary as new and green counterparts. He continues by asserting that, it is amazing those older districts are much greener compared to newly constructed one. It is easier to walk or cycle to shop or work in older areas. This would ultimately mean that one living in an old house but walk able neighborhood will be expending little energy as compared to one residing in a new insulated house in the suburbs (Poesch, 107). It has been ruled out that using an already existing house will always be better than trying to build a green one. Techniques used in building will be useful in protecting the original structure from harm as new technologies are incorporated to ensure that final product cuts across both tradition and modernity. Green buildings give the occupants a chance to appreciate the past and at the same time utilize a sustainable structure with a place in the present world (Poesch, 35). In contrary to the aim of most developer and redevelopment companies and agencies of demolishing old historic buildings with the intent of constructing new green ones, preservationist are putting the case clear that greenest building is that which is already built (Poesch, 72). In the past, little evidence was available in terms of the energy that is lost when a building is brought down. This was until recently when the economic and environmental benefits of reusing building came up in a report. The report explained how to calculate the amount of energy and material that will be lost and the carbon emitted during the process of demolishing a building. The energy and material locked in the building is referred to as embodied energy. Embodied energy comprise of the total amount of energy consumed during the entire process linked with the construction of a building from acquisition of natural resources to the delivery of the products. This process start at the mining, manufacturing of the building material/ equipments and finally transporting them to the building cites. By doing the simple math of considering the yet to be build structure in term of size, type and comparing it to structure to be demolished, it is possible to do an estimation of the amount of energy that will be saved by preserving the building (Poesch, 342). Some builders have acknowledged that historic business buildings utilize less energy than their modern counterparts. This is completely opposite for homes, older homes are worse consumers of energy. Conservationists have countered that study and argue that it will be less costly to remodel and upgrade older homes to meet the preferred energy standards. This is also environmentally less costly as compared to tearing down the whole building and constructing a new one (Poesch, 347). Some of the greenest preserved places in New Orleans are characterized by domestic style in architecture. For instance houses in the New Orleans uptown. They are the Creole cottages; found sprawling the city with most of them constructed between the years 1790 to 1850. The houses are most found in the French Quarters, other areas such as Bywater, Marigny and Faubourg. The houses are characterized by one storey set at land level. Their roofs have a steeply pitched roof with equal four –opening front wall with its exterior made of wood or stucco (Poesch, 180). American townhouse style also is a representative of many houses that were constructed between 1820 and 1850. Majority of such houses are found in the New Orleans central business district (CBD) and the lower garden district. The houses with this style are narrow, 3 story building made of bricks or stucco. They have an arrangement of facade and a balcony on the 2nd floor sitting close to the property line (Poesch, 392). The Creole town house structures were mostly constructed after the great New Orleans fire in 1788 to the mid-19th century. Creole townhouse style is the most iconic piece of architecture so far new Orleans city. It covers the widest area of French quarter and the neighborhood of Marigny and Faubourg. Structures with courtyards, thick walls, arcades and wrought iron balcony replaced buildings made of wood. The structures had distinctive steep pitched roofs, side gabled with numerous roof dormers. Their outside were made of wood or stucco (Poesch, 34). Shotgun house is a narrow rectangular residence not exceeding 3.5 meters in width, with doors on both ends. The style had its origin in New Orleans and therefore s the city’s predominant type of house. The houses were built betwee1850 to 1910 and are found through out the city. They are generally narrow rectangular houses, one story and resting on brick piers. Mostly they have narrow porches covered with a roof apron supported with columns and brackets. They are normally ornamented lacey Victorian motifs. Shotgun exists in many disparities such as camelback house characterized by a fractional 2nd floor on the end of the house. Double width shotgun; this is twice wider than the normal Shotgun and north shore houses with broad verandas on either sides (Poesch, 276). Poesch (316) asserts that double gallery houses are common around esplanade, New Orleans. Their constructions were between 1820 and 1850. They are double story houses with a side-gabbled or hipped roof. The houses are set back from the property line with two covered story galleries framed and upheld by columns sustaining the entablature. The houses came as a variation of the American town houses which were as per that era considered the suburbs of New Orleans i.e. uptown esplanade ridge and garden districts. Poesch (317) asserts that California style bungalow houses were built between early and mid 20th century in neighborhoods such as Broadmoor , Gentilly terrace and mid-city and scattered into the older neighborhoods. Their outstanding features are low slung appearance, having a more horizontal posture than vertical. The outside is normally made of wood with bricks or stucco and hanging roof. They are normally 1 or 1 and 1/2 story with sloping roofs with rafters that are not closed Poesch (316). The neighborhood of New Orleans has houses with older architectural styles. French quarter for instance have close to 2,900 building most of which are “second generation” category of Creole or Greek recovery styles. Fire incidences of 1788 and 1794 burned most of the houses of wooden galleries which were French colonial building leaving only Madame John’s legacy built during the Spanish rule between 1745 and 1752. Of all the houses built during the Spanish and French era, only 25 of them are still standing to date (Poesch, 110). Jacksons square after the 1850s renovation got it current form. The cathedral had a unique redesign, addition of mansard rooftops to the Cabildo and the Presbytere and Pontalba being built on the sides of the square, decorated with twisted iron balconies. This period marked the beginning of utilization of twisted iron balconies in New Orleans (Poesch, 181). Charles Street Avenue is known for its large collection of mansions depicting various architectural styles including but not restricted to Victorian, Greek revival and colonial. New Orleans had the largest alliance at the beginning of the American civil war and survived the war with the largest assortment of Antebellum architecture. Examples of such building are the Greek revival style center hall cottage, binary galleried Greek revival style Dabney House and the Dameron House, both on St. Charles Avenue (Poesch, 180). The central business district of New Orleans soil proved to be able to bear the great weight of tall building such a s the world trade centre new Orleans and plaza towers. The one shell square broke the record of the tallest building in New Orleans a title it still retains to date. The CBD has a number of significant historic buildings such as Moorish revival, Immaculate Conception church and the Egyptian revival United States custom house (New Orleans). Apart from buildings, New Orleans cemeteries are also well-known for their detailed European techniques. Such cemeteries include the greenwood cemetery, Metairie cemetery and Saint Louis cemetery. New Orleans water table is very high and this mean that grave are not dug “six feet under” but instead they go for tombs (Poesch, 215). New Orleans just like any other city in the United States has faced problem ranging from downward property value and urban declines to destruction by hurricane Katrina and hurricane Rita. With all this threats, conservation resource centre have remained dedicated to promoting the preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods. The devastating hurricane floods in New Orleans left several buildings severely damaged. The fact that both rebuilders and new developers have all along had the opinion to preserve architectural integrity, New Orleans has remained to be the most famous city in historic architecture (Poesch, 175). Most people though are resistant about retrofitting and reusing buildings. For instance architects will argue that they prefer starting from scratch, developers on the other hand will refrain from the hustles of rehabbing old and already existing buildings as the class of thought that new buildings are foundation of the American economy amongst other resistances. In this group of resistance are the customary environmental advocates and the United States green building council and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification (Poesch, 267). According to Poesch (347).The environment and historic conservations share one thing in common: in order for one to get a clear understanding of their importance in the community, long term thinking on the issue is recommended. This has been to the contrary for elected leaders who instead focus more on re-election in the upcoming general election rather than the next generation. Promoting preservation of old buildings can be said to be environmentally imperative is essentially appropriate. This is because, restoration and salvage of older structures is the eventual recycling. A lot of energy and natural resources saved in the process. Work Cited Poesch, Jessie J.. Louisiana buildings, 1720-1940. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997. Read More