Professor Elizabeth Mossop and Associate Professor Wes Michaels of the School of Landscape Architecture received a more than $240,000 grant from the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, NORA, to research and implement ecologically and economically sustainable designs on vacant land in New Orleans.
NORA currently takes care of about 2,300 vacant lots, which were transferred to NORA following Hurricane Katrina. The authority has partnered with the landscape architects at the University to help enhance some of the vacant properties by planting foliage and installing amenities like fences and birdhouses with the goal of stabilizing and beautifying neighborhoods still recovering from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This also helps to reduce NORA’s long-term maintenance cost, according to a University news release.
Both professors are directors at Spackman Mossop and Michaels, an international office for landscape architecture and urban design, as well as working at the University. Michaels’ research involves pioneering techniques for sustainable public landscapes and Mossop’s focuses on investigation of contemporary landscape design, according to Spackman Mossop and Michaels’ website.
In 2013, Mossop led a research seminar in which University students researched vacant land management practices and solutions in several cities including Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia. These cities are looking into ways to deal with the issues that come from lost population, like New Orleans after Katrina, said Mossop in the news release.
“There has to be a balance between the ecological needs and neighborhood perception,” said Michaels in the release. “In the end, we want to add to the value of these neighborhoods, and we want these lots to be seen as amenities by the residents.”
The University’s landscape architecture program was ranked second in the nation last November by DesignIntelligence.
With the funding provided by NORA from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Mossop and Michaels will test a series of 15-25 plots located in a variety of ecological conditions across the city. Some of the lots they will work on will be prone to flooding and others that have environmental justice issues, such as being close to the freeway or under overpasses, the release said. They will investigate how to better manage storm water in the lots and encourage biodiversity.