Happy New Year! 2008 brings your dedicated Crew back to the streets of “NOLA” for ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL, Spring Semester: THE BUILD! I don’t know about y’all, but we’re ready to put on some serious hard hats.

While purple-clad, victorious, and hungover LSU (Louisiana State University) football fans stumbled home Monday morning after a winning championship game, Tulane URBANbuild students were already hard at work on the corner of Seventh and Dryades. And as usual, we were there, filming it all.

Build Day #1, which apparently involves a significant amount of orange spray paint. They use it to mark foundation and elevation measurements – now based, not surprisingly, on new post-Katrina city regulations.

The Crew is staging in an empty NHS house up for sale, a block away from the site. We’re all on walkie-talkies, so we’re in constant communication. But walkies don’t alleviate having to run up and down the block to deliver fresh P2 cards and batteries, ask on-camera people to sign releases, or watch scenes to log notes. We assigned the crew and the students each a secret walkie code name. I said “secret” – so don’t ask…

It was a fun day, as per Casey who said, without a hint of sarcasm: “It’s better than Disneyworld.” We’ll see how long that lasts. First up – organize the toolbox!

Rachel Clift
Producer

Today we met someone who loves that empty blue 07 URBANbuild house on Dryades and Sixth. In fact, she can see it from her living room window. Her name is Tess Lassai, and she lives just a few doors down. A longtime resident of this neighborhood, Tess says the house reminds her of Santa Barbara. (And considering how hot it is down here, I can only imagine why someone would long for a cool sea breeze.) Tess wants her daughter to buy the house so she can see her grand daughter waving from the window.

But what hits us more with each day we film is how incredibly hard the process of buying a home can be, especially when a) you’ve never done it before AND b) you need financial assistance from a city whose infrastructure was pummeled by a Category 5 hurricane.

How naive we were when we got here. We thought that with a little nudge and enough housing workshops, an eager, dedicated homebuyer would be well on their way to ownership.

But URBANbuild partner NHS (Neighborhood Housing Services) [www.nhsnola.org] is setting us straight: We’ve learned that because of credit and income requirements (financial burdens we are ALL familiar with…um, hello!) combined with lack of subsidy money that dried up after Katrina, it can sometimes take five years plus for a new homebuyer to find the right house. During that time, a dream home could be snatched from beneath your feet.

For middle to lower income New Orleans residents (many of whom are also single mothers, as our show will probably reveal) purchasing a safe affordable house takes a reserve of strength, determination, and persistence much deeper than we had imagined.

Rachel Clift
Producer

The first and second URBANbuild houses. The concepts for both were derived from traditional New Orleans architectural styles, and both built by Tulane architecture students who’ve created a modern take on an old theme. The first was inspired by a typical “Shotgun”, the second on a classic “Camelback”.

Shotguns are long, thin houses with no corridors; just one room attached to the next as you move straight through the house. Sort of like a railroad apartment – a familiar set-up for us New Yorkers. Legend has it shotgun homes helped keep paramours away: just one shot fired through the front door could travel straight down the hallway into the bedroom!

Here’s [www.gnocdc.org] what sounds like a slightly more accurate historical explanation. Camelbacks are like Shotguns, but include a second story in the back, hence their hump-like appearance. They were built by occupants who wanted to increase their living space but avoid Mr. Tax Collector, who would come by demanding more money if you built a second story on a street edge.

The first house is owned by a friendly cop named Timothy. Now studying to become a nurse, he was a first-responder during Katrina, so while Rob and Michael were shooting exteriors of the house, he showed me slides of the rescue effort. Which made me weep. Highly professional behavior, I know.

Meanwhile, at the corner of Dryades and Sixth Streets, the second Tulane house is still vacant. Only one block away from the new build site, I guess it’s waiting for just the right buyer to come along.

I hope someone snags it while we’re here, and inspires other locals to consider a modern housing alternative. Every night on the ride down St. Charles Ave. back to the CBD (Central Business District) where we stay when we’re in our home away from home, the crew talks about the pros and cons of cultural change through architecture, especially in a city as steeped in tradition as New Orleans. Let’s just say that it’s a conversation with no end.

Rachel Clift
Producer