Katrina Cottage: The New Urbanist Response

They should be encouraging denser housing solutions (such as cities) which per capita generate far less polution than this so-called "idyllic" new urbanist fantasy.

The Katrina Cottage like all New Urbanist work is to be evaluated in the context of an urban plan. For Mississippi, see the plan at http://www.mississippirenewal.com/info/plansReports.html. It is important to note that New Urbanism promotes higher densities to fight sprawl.

I was part of the charrette. We dealt with 11 towns and cities, and except where the hurrican surge dictated otherwise, we always increased density.

You have to remember that we were dealing with thousands of people who had lost everything, often with no insurance and little income. And our first instruction from Governor Barbour was, No one will have their home taken away.

Mariannne Cusato's cottages are emergency housing, designed to sell for the same price as or less than FEMA trailers. Often one must have a FEMA house on site before reconstruction can begin, and these are designed to be temporary housing which eventually can become part of a bigger house.

Kool, huh? Even in Canada they're helping.

I am of the opinon they should just flood the whole thing and turn it into an American Venice.

This Katrina Cottage is a great idea, but I have a suggestion to make. I'm out doing volunteer reconstruction work in Biloxi, Mississippi right now (remember, New Orleans wasn't the only place hit), and the biggest task we're doing is de-molding houses. This means gutting the interiors completely, spraying with anti-mold chemicals, and then letting others rebuild the house's interior. If the houses were made of brick and plaster (or CMU, or other stone-based materials), they would not have gotten moldy, so anything that wasn't destroyed would be habitable.

As it is, most houses are structurally sound but unlivable because of mold. A viable long-term housing solution would get people not just back where they were, but improve their odds of dealing with the next storm. Perhaps that's beyond the intended scope of this project, but it would be a more satisfying solution.

It would be nice if the house was built of (recycled) plastic lumber and raised above flood level on pilings made of recycled plastic. They should also be covered with solar cells so the residents would have some power the next time the levies break. Probably should have some method to capture rainwater as well.

The previous levies were built to withstand a catagory 3 huricane, not a 5 like Katrina, therefore, they did the job they were designed to do.

As the Army Corp. of Engineers has made no decloration that the levies will be built to a higher standard than the previous ones, it is essential that the overall design of the city change if we don't want history to repeat itself.
I see three possible options,
1. Build the levies to be able to handle a catagory 5
or
2. Make New Orleans into a American Venice as the above poster has noted
or
3. Tear down the 9th ward area and similar extremely low lying areas and compensate the people who lived there and provide new developments on higher ground.
The issue with any of the above options, cost. No one seems willing to invest the time, energy and money it would take to successfully implement any of the above plans

"I am of the opinon they should just flood the whole thing and turn it into an American Venice."

Would you be willing to exchange that for higher fuel and food prices? The Port of NOLA is one of the largest ports in the country, and its demise would place a potential stranglehold on almost all of the grain coming out of the midwest, as well as fuel flowing in all directions. NOLA exists for very rational, free-market conditions, and any thought of it simply being flooded or otherwise ignored places this country's economy at great peril.

American Venice, eh? Why not go to San Antonio instead. Plenty of ignorance and closed minds there--you'll be very happy.

using "TREX" type building materials ( wood fiber mixed with plastic ) avoid warpage and MOLD. as the previous poster stated, MOLD is a vicious problem that could be eliminated prior to a problem by using the proper construction materials... and last i was told by a carpenter... TREX products were comparable to redwood lumber ... "but better" ...

secondly, the "denser" solution" is a loser unless adequate roadage is constructed to handle the denser human population. anyone can see "dense" housing built with historical roadage ends up laughable with tempers flaring due to heavy traffic on streets not designed for same. ditto for muliple houses on small "L" lots. neighbors look out their window into a parking lot of their neighhbors cars / people really mad having to move cars around to get out of their neighbors way.

conclusion: anti mold building materials ( not plain wood ) AND avoid increasing density without proper roadage to compensate for heavier human population.

Wow- Not a single Gulf Coast resident here, I see.
I'm a New Orleanian. You Yankees need our port system, the largest deep water port system in the world, because without us you'll have $50 a gallon gas and NO coffee. You won't notice as you shiver starving in the dark, though...
Every minister of Foreign Trade in the world was here within weeks after the flood- they know what we are. The Saudis were here getting fuel to small business owners, but Shell Oil where were you?
Anyway- the cottage is a work of genius. Obviously none of you live in FEMA trailer like me. You all go sit in a plastic house in a tropical storm before you shoot your mouths off.
And this BS about stone construction? How much stone for building do you think there is in a huge delta system? The lumber houses we live in serve a specific purpose in our climate, think it through. The mold feasts on Sheetrock and wall to wall carpet, which are NOT part of the indigenous architecture. Only a fool builds a slab house on the Coast. Fool developers, not architects.
By the way- Katrina passed New Orleans as a Cat 3 and the levys failed after the storm passed. The Corps of Engineers' sloth and incompetance is directly responsible for the destruction of my beautiful city, so get your facts straight.
We should close the port for two weeks and you'll see why there's a city here. I'm tired of Yankees and carpetbaggers spouting stupidity about a place they've never been. Katrina could have hit Manhatten Island worse than a dirty bomb, so can the attitude.

Liz Claiborne
New Orleans Always.

The cottage is nice but we have one that was built in late october that is similar but we used light gauge steel studs and a metal exterior for less maintenance.
And our price is much less than this dwelling. For info contact me via email.

Hi..I'd be interested in learning more about your steel stud/metal exterior cottage that is more affordable than the Katrina Cottage. Thanks so much! Nancy

I love this house. I'm trying to buy one through Lowe's (sp?) to put in California. I'm from New Orleans and think these are great for the Gulf area until they get the levees in place.

Y'all who do not understand why New Orleans must be saved do not know New Orleans. I can only pray that New Orleans survives and you will all get the chance to know her - a very special place - beautiful and wondrous like no other.

Living in the Gulf Coast area is like being a pioneer. The situation is different from New Orleans and Mississippi. But we are both getting back on our feet. I travel to MS and it will take time and effort, but things happen for a reason.

It really helped the crime in New Orleans. We bought a house after the storm in a neighborhood you wouldn't have wanted to live in before the storm. There are some very good deals on structures that have stood through many floods. So the flood helped us buy a great home in New Orleans.

I like the cottages for the vacant lots or someone that wants to demolish blighted building on the lot. I say the more building the better.

People should come see for themselves how it changed New Orleans. Some expensive neighborhooods will have just as tough a time to recover as some of the poor ones. No race, religion or class was spared with Katrina.

I'm a native of Portland, OR, but I just returned from visiting family in Gulfport, MS.

While there this past week I visited the Reconstruction Expo held at the colusieum in either Biloxi or Gulfport (can't remember which). The highlight for me was touring the 22 model homes set up in the parking lot. These were all modular or mobile homes, what around here we'd call either a manufactured home or a trailer home - depending on type.

Of the few small, Katrina Cottage types on display, I was most impressed with the offering from Flat Creek Lodges (www.flatcreeklodges.com). Steel structure, good design, nicely finished and compact. Priced for the show special, furnished at roughly $46,000. This worked out to just about $100 per square foot. The structure is built to the standards of permanent housing, and thus will have real value versus the FEMA trailer it is meant to replace.

However, the economy in the South is very different than in the Pacific Northwest. The $46,000 beach getaway that this Flat Creek Lodge was decorated as seems like a steal to me, and would be ideal for placing on a modest lot on the Oregon Coast. However, reviewing the real estate section of any of the gulf coast newspapers shows that there are abundant options for site built homes with land well below $100,000 - an unheard of low price here in Oregon. This puts the price of Katrina Cottages into perspective. Several sales filers offered price per square foot for as low as $37.77. The least expensive home in the show as a mere $37,900.

With some homes shown at the show literally nothing more than large sheds, with the feel of a metal shed on the inside, there seem to also be ample opportunity to make a rash decision on housing and have the gulf coast "littered" with mediocre housing. I think individuals need to make a determination for themselves whether or not the desparate need for housing puts us in a Post WWII situation with Quonset Huts for homes, or if we can find intelligent solutions that will meet the economic, long-term and short-term needs of gulf coast residents.

Sorry for the rambling, but I let my thoughts flow.

What designer would design a wood frame cottage at a cost of $80,000? A monolithic Concrete cottage that could withstand a cat 4 hurricane would have been a better solution and at a third of the cost. Hey what the heck its only the taxpayers money.

Liz Claiborne rocks! I am a Baton Rougon living in Portland Oregon. I feel the Katrina cottage kicks some major ass. It reminds me of all the old houses I use to see growing up in south Louisiana. And all that bs about urban renewal! Are you kidding me! Shut the hell up and get behing this thing.

And no plastic lumber houses.

Js

We bought a house after the storm in a neighborhood you wouldn't have wanted to live in before the storm. There are some very good deals on structures that have stood through many floods.

http://www.nolanrp.com/Data/Neighborhood//District_4_Final_TulaneGravier.pdf

Check out our neighborhood in New Orleans. Tulane/Gravier is just one neighborhood that went through a planning process with the city and we have a plan. We are still planning but soon the money from the Federal Govt will be hitting the streets.

Come buy a lot or flooded house. Starting at $15,000.

The Katrina Cottage was built in just 20 days and trucked to the site, Cusato said. This one was frame construction, but it could be built as a modular home or with panelized construction. The idea was to offer something versatile, flexible and affordable and to interest manufacturers in reproducing the house.

I am architect for a modular company in the north and have toured many of the devastated areas up and down the Gulf Coast. I have been a speaker at rebuilding conferences held and have brought homes down to the reconstruction home shows in Mississippi. We have now completed our first "Katrina Cottage" for the New Urban Guild and are excited to see and hear how this product can be used to help in the process. We are proud that we where able to build it complete under $50.00 a sq.ft. If anyone has any leads or knows of someone looking please feel free to contact John Carricarte 260-668-0198, we can help and are just waiting for the opportunity to show you just how fast.

I am interested in hearing from Harold about steel framing and metal exterior on the Katrina Cottage.

when will these homes be ready for purchase?

The New Urban Guild and the Katrina Cottages are definetly new rays of hope as is panalized construction. The book "Tiny Houses" published long before Katrina suggests we are still going about re-inventing the wheel with the same mind set we had before the storm. I saw one plan that had the bathroom door opening up into the living room because the water heater was blocking the alternative placements. One would do well to look back at the Pullman sleeping cars of yesterday. The prices quoted are really scary. I live in an old hippie community (City of the Sun), the home of "Papercrete". My house cost $19.00 sq ' and it is probably the most expensive (per sq.') here but judging by the number of tourists that come around they must have some appeal. If Lowe's executives really wanted to lead the way why don't they buy up twenty acres on the Gulf Coast and build a new town without the same social mistakes Pullman made in Illinois.

The Katrina Cottages plans are engineered for either wood frame construction or metal framing. If you buy the materials package through Lowes, you can choose either -- metal framing being 100% mold proof. The siding is hardiplank cement fiber board, and the drywall is the no-paper mold resistant kind. The roofing is 25 year metal roofing. These cottages also have adequate soffets in the attic spaces, and call for ceiling fans in almost every room for increased ventilation. In other words, they are designed to be highly mold, termite, and rot-resistant. They also are designed to withstand 140+ mph winds... That is also why they cost about $100+/sq ft to build, not including the price of land and permits... These are extremely high quality structures that would fare far better in the face of another Katrina than the structures which they are replacing. They are charming and practical.

I am planning on building a 900 sq ft Katrina Cottage as a permanent home for my family of 3. I live in Oregon, and it rains constantly here -- mold, termites and rot are a huge problem. These plans are structurally sound, but also make good use of space. I personally HATE the huge 3500 sq ft Super-Sized McHouses, mish-mashed jumbled architectural styles, oversized, gouche, unattractive, wasteful and ridiculous.

I think the Katrina Cottages are great just to build for their own sake, as household size continues to shrink in America (we are fast becoming a nation of 1.7-person households). The future is going to embrace the Cottage concept, and the modernist/contemporary design that brought us the age of the sprawling, tasteless Super-Sized McHouse is going to be looked upon as an ugly, wasteful mistake.