Good news in the Gulf

Wanted: Experienced drywallers, carpenters, electricians, and roofers. Low pay, long hours, and high reward. Inexperienced workers also welcome to lend a hand. Photo by: Brian Treffeisen

Foot-dragging and finger-pointing have slowed the rebuilding process that began after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast two years ago. The hurricanes wiped out a quarter of a million houses, displacing millions of residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. After the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided temporary relief in the form of camper trailers, politicians moved on to the next hot issues: tax cuts, prescription drugs, and the 2006 election. The federal rebuilding agenda seems to have been abandoned like so many empty houses along the Gulf Coast, and for many storm victims, those temporary trailers are looking like longterm solutions. But for many others, there’s hope for a house.

When the Feds drop out, volunteers step up

The major push behind what has been rebuilt and renovated has come in the form of volunteers—thousands of them from across the country. Habitat for Humanity has led the charge, building roughly 1000 houses in the Gulf and gutting another 2200 for renovation. Small organizations are rolling up their sleeves, too. Tim Kiernan is a retired remodeler (and a Fine Homebuilding subscriber) from Buffalo, Minn., who has volunteered in various parts of the Gulf for the past couple of winters. Most recently, he worked with a small group called St. Rose Outreach and Recovery (SOAR), a churchbased group from Bay St. Louis, Miss., that has been able to rehab a bunch of houses and build one from the ground up. As a professional builder, Tim is one of the more experienced volunteers coming through the ranks. Many of the other workers are “untaught,” as he puts it, so tasks like electrical wiring and drywall can be a challenge.

Big organizations can overcome the problem of unskilled workers by placing skilled foremen on the job, but small groups have to be creative. To get houses wired safely, SOAR’s construction manager, licensed electrician Beau Saccoccia, pulled electrical permits so that skilled volunteers like Tim could mount boxes and pull wire. He then organized a team of volunteer electricians to check the rough-in and to hook up the service panels.

Design assistance aids reconstruction

While volunteers are making significant contributions with hammers and nails, help has also arrived in other forms. A couple of resources developed by architects and planners are being used to build and renovate houses that are stronger, more durable, energy-efficient, attractive, and affordable.

The Louisiana Speaks: Pattern Book, along with its companion, Louisiana Speaks: Planning Tool Kit, were developed by Urban Design Associates (www.urbandesignassociates.com), based in Pittsburgh. These free books (available for download at www.louisianaspeaks.org) aim to make new construction in Louisiana “safer, stronger, and smarter” without losing the  look of the old Louisiana. Pattern books are nothing new; Asher Benjamin’s Country Builder’s Assistant (1797) and The Practical House Carpenter (1830) provided design details that guided countless American carpenters in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A road map for rebuilding. Rebuilding the Gulf region is one thing; rebuilding it well is another. The Louisiana Speaks: Pattern Book and Planning Tool Kit give advice on flood resistance, accessibility, green building, and regional architectural styles. Photo by: Krysta S. Doerfler

The Louisiana Speaks: Pattern Book goes farther with sections on community patterns, architectural details, green-building guidelines, accessibility, and flood resistance. Design sections (one each for Louisiana Vernacular, Louisiana Victorian, Louisiana Classical, Louisiana Arts & Crafts, and Louisiana Modern) provide lists of “essential elements,” sketches of typical exteriors, a photo gallery of the style, lessons in massing, and even a landscape and planting guide. Detailed drawings are also included for walls, eaves, roofs, porches, windows, and doors. These categories offer three examples (simple, common, and ornate) to match a project’s budget. Green-building tips are provided on many pages to complement the green-building section in the front of the book.

In Mississippi, Architecture for Humanity (AFH) is constructing demonstration homes in hard-hit areas like Biloxi. AFH is a charitable organization that promotes sustainable building not only in the Gulf but also worldwide. Thanks to AFH initiatives, local and national design firms have been able to build model homes that demonstrate durable, affordable, code-compliant design and construction. The homes are then donated to families that need them. In conjunction with the Biloxi Relief, Recovery, and Revitalization Center and the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio of Mississippi State University, AFH provides property surveys and helps to design the rehabilitation for hundreds of partially destroyed homes. Ongoing projects can be tracked at www.architectureforhumanity.org.

A demonstration of affordable possibilities. This model, called the Blox, is a “flexible kit of parts that can be customized easily to adapt to the particular needs of a family,” according to Houston architect Brett Zamore of the organization Architecture for Humanity. Based on two traditional Southern designs (shotgun and dogtrot), the house is designed to make economical use of standard construction materials. Photo by: Jenny Gurney, courtesy of Architecture for Humanity