I would also, like Michael Grote, welcome anyone who would like to come down to Biloxi and tour our program. The expertise on the ground here is enormous and we have all dedicated our lives to helping…truly helping by answering the residents real concerns and offering real solutions to these communities. All of the construction documentation and architectural/engineering assistance is available to any resident who walks into our offices with the East Biloxi Coordination Relief and Redevelopment Agency where we work closely with the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio. Again, we offer solutions to the residents. We work in their community and are always available to them. I challenge anyone who thinks they have better solution to please come down and present your solutions, with a financing package, to the community leaders. I’m sure they would welcome you with open arms.

Finally, today is June 21st. Almost two years after this storm I consistantly answer my phone at all hours of the day and night to hear a resident on the other end of the line desperate for housing solutions. I can sleep peacefully knowing that thanks to this program, and our partners and architects like Micheal Grote, David Perkes and so many more that we work with, I can offer them real answers.

I was researching foundaion piling work in your area. I thought there must be lot’s of piling work and posibibly relocating, The way that was discribed by Dennis was the industery standard I thought (it is on this coast).

If any one needs piling plans & or pictures from projects around here I can supply copy’s so you can see what is standard practice here.

Bryan Gallagher
Bryguyy@msn.com

Our next hurdle is getting local building officials to approve these plans. We expect some raised eyebrows on the container construction, but believe that the design is code-compliant and should be approved. We will create a site and post the plans shortly and I will revisit here and provide a link. We welcome input.

The pace of rebuilding New Orleans’ lower-income neighborhoods is tortoiselike at best, and tens of thousands of vacant houses litter the landscape. The majority of these are destined for eventual demolition, and cannot be rebuilt unless we come us with some realitic affordable solutions. I applaud the efforts of Architecture For Humanity and the seven houses that they are producing. However, in order for this region to recover, we need large-scale solutions and these will not come until creative affordable solutions are realized.

While I appreciate your involvement in this discussion, I’d also appreciate you being a tad more considerate of the people who are working their tails off down in the Gulf Coast to provide this shelter to citizens who need it (particularly Mike Grote and Cameron, who is Cameron Sinclair, Founder of Architecture for Humanity). I’d like to know if you have been down to visit or have worked on similar projects/scenarios, or if you are merely an observer with a slew of opinions and weblinks as “evidence.” You bring up some valid points that are worth discussing, but please be respectful of the people who are doing good work everyday and making a huge difference in a region that needs continued aid. I also think it’s interesting that each of your comments has made no mention of the PEOPLE in the Gulf Coast, but rather rely on an emotionless analysis of the structural capabilities of buildings. I think the folks at Architecture for Humanity have it right- architecture should fulfill basic needs, but the humanitarian design process is really about treating people with pride and not pity, to design for human beings and clients rather than victims.

Emily Pilloton

Managing Editor
http://www.Inhabitat.com

Again… I wish all the folks in the Gulf Region the very best !

Linda 3/4/07… I couldn’t agree more. Rebuilding in flood plain, storm surge, hurricane prone areas is questionable. That’s why if structures are to be built, they must exceed the past standards that have clearly not worked. If my reccomendation as to the http://www.seccs.org/homehouse/winners.html design is not appealing… maybe the ‘Monolithic Dome Designs seen at: http://www.monolithic.com are more so ?

Cameron 3/5/07… Hey man, Shipping Container based designs have come a long way. Check out: http://www.demariadesigns.com , go to ‘residential structures’, click on ‘redondo beach house’ and check it out. As for insulation, they’re using a new product developed by NASA. To read about it, click on: ‘LA Times Article’ on the ‘redondo beach house’ page. A simpler insulation proces could employ SIP’s (structurally insulated panels) on the container’s exteriors.

Thanks for the validation from the : Revolution Corporation, Chris Baskind, Michael McKenzie.

And to Mike Grote, Architecture for Humanity, I respond thusly: Mike, it’s the otherway around my friend. Please SHOW ME any housing that is built as you are now doing that HAS withstood the storm surges, and high articulating winds of force 3, 4, or 5 hurricanes. It’s a trick question of course… because there are no examples of the design in question still standing after such. GET A BETTER DESIGN MIKE, as the one that’s being built will be blown away, or storm surged out of exitence during the next powerful storm !

Yes, in fact, the flag pole, which is constructed of thin-walled turned aluminum, was damaged during the initial storm surge, probably from debris washing up against it, like a 4FT diameter oak tree, shrimp schooner, or maybe a small TOYOTA. The location of the flag pole is only yards away from the water. However, the location of the Model Homes and much of the focus of rebuilding on the Gulf Coast is further inland, in an area which received damage from inland flooding, not a storm surge.

The primary damage resulted from an aging housing stock that was built long before a strong building code was enforced, so most houses floated off their foundations. Uplift was the culprit, not surge or wind. Wind and water generated uplift caused most of the damage. Yes in the V-zones the storm surge blew many houses completely off their slab, and scoured the finishes clean off the concrete. However, many of the homes on concrete pier foundations met the same fate as their much older neighbors because of a weak connection at the floor fame, and other structural short comings. No matter how strong we think concrete is, the belief that it’s the answer is very simplistic and in my opinion myopic. If you begin to survey the damage here in Mississippi its becomes abundantly clear that newer stick framed construction (after hurricane Andrew) withstood the storm quite well, and many older homes framed and sheathed correctly also only received damage from rising flood waters.

The solution of over-engineered pier foundations doesn’t really address the issue, and in many ways complicates it. The current means of constructing elevated homes puts 8” x 8” or 10” x 10” treated wood piers in 3’ x 3’ x 3’ holes in the ground with concrete poured around them. Post-hole technology has come home to roost on the Gulf Coast. Not very strong laterally or when subject to a surge. On the other hand, the knee-jerk reaction always tends to lean towards bigger is better, stiffer is better, and more steel and more concrete will solve our problems. I shutter at the accusation that its insane to build with wood piers, because they are “not strong enough.” Show me the case study that tells us this, come to the coast and show me undeniable proof that I have miss over the last year of living here, please I invite anyone down and I myself will pay for the trip if you can prove to me these points. But the cost of construction has escalated to the level of being prohibitive for many people who owned homes both inside and outside of existing flood zones. They now have very few options for rebuilding.

There is no magic bullet building solution. I myself have built a home out of two shipping containers. Is this method an option? Could be. However, it involves a substantial amount of work to adapt a simple building element that was originally designed solely to ship plastic widgets and Mardi Gras beads from China, not house and nurture families.

Any references to other places and their building solutions must be more comprehensive in their comparisons. The geological conditions of the Biloxi peninsula are quite different from the sandy soil conditions of much of Florida.

It is important to keep in mind that the Model Home Program is a research and development project; thus, by definition, it begins as a testing ground, which over time evolves and implements what it learns along the way. I challenge the criticism that the Model Homes were not designed for hurricane prone areas, and I would like to know the criteria the critic is using to make this claim.

As far as best roof designs go, uplift is our issue—not lateral wind load—and always has and always will be. The roof truss system of this house has been designed to meet the hurricane code standard, and is clipped and strapped on every truss. The lateral loads are absorbed by the truss structure and down through the columns that rise from the foundations through to the top plates. Most of the roofs that failed were those that were not held down and were ripped off the house, but the houses did not blow over like a house of cards. The others had 300-year-old oak trees fall through them. These are unique conditions that can be debated to no end.

Instead, let’s get down to brass tacks. As the federal money makes its way to the homeowners, they are beginning to face the realities of construction costs. I can say I want to build back a concrete bunker to replace my two-bedroom, one-bath, 1200 sf bungalow, but who will build it and how much will it cost? The craft labor shortage across the country is only exacerbated by the rebuilding effort along the Gulf Coast. The cost of skilled labor (and “skilled” is a stretch) is on the rise—it’s a sellers market. There are public projects (i.e. bridges, roads and buildings) along with Casino reconstruction and the new condo speculation market is the competition for skilled craft labor. We are targeting a $75-$95 per square foot budget for the Model Homes. I wish the money of 7 homes could build 20 homes, but I haven’t been able to pull that rabbit out of my hat, at that rate we would build homes for $35-40K apiece. Try sticking a family of 6 or 7 in that shoe box.

My door is always open, and I would love to take anyone on a tour of Biloxi and the Gulf Coast, including the Model Homes in design and under construction.

Mike Grote
Architecture For Humanity
Bilox Model Home Program Manager

Let’s play a different way! post-Katrina, residential recovery, and all that, but discussion is open only to college students in Nebraska, New Hampshire and Hawaii whose keyboarding skills are hunt and peck.

Ready?

GO!

(All others are welcome to lurk… and click on our sponsors.)

At the same time, programs to purchase the land from low-income households and relocate them to safety are few and far between. Nor do many qualify for any sort of comprehensive financing. Most of the flood damage on the Coast was uninsured, and I don’t see people lining up with bags of money to aid with low-income storm relief.

More should be done, but as someone who was directly effected by both Katrina and Ivan, I’m grateful to anyone who comes down here on their own dime to put roofs over people’s heads, even if their solutions are temporary or not what we’d really like to see at the end of the day.

You’d be welcome to bring your expertise to the Coast. Just bring plenty of bug spray. Only about 1 in 3 of the families on my parents’ street are back in their homes after Katrina. I’m sure they’d appreciate your advice, money, and labor.

http://www.asla.org/lamag/feature1.html

The whole story is only available online to ASLA members, but the print version of the magazine is available in many places and I often enjoy it.

good reading.