Growing Home New Orleans

Tags:: Design; Outside

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans still houses to up to 70,000 vacant lots. Two years ago, however, the city put a plan into place to help residents revive their neighborhoods. The resulting Lot Next Door program, created by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA), offers homeowners the first right of refusal to purchase the vacant lots next to their own. What seals the deal for many is the opportunity to receive $10,000 off of the purchasing price if the buyer agrees to make basic landscape improvements--from building a fence to planting trees to installing rain gardens--through a subprogram known as Growing Home.

— Miyoko Ohtake

Run by Abigail Feldman, a landscape designer and founder of New Orleans-based firm Heavy Meadow, Growing Home works with each interested Lot Next Door property owner to develop a landscaping scheme, put a plan in place, and confirm that the work has been done so each participant receives the $10,000 discount on the purchasing price. Shown here is the blighted property next to Addison and Yolanda Penn's home in the upper 9th Ward that they bought from NORA.

+ Read Article

Comments
Related Content

rob08.19.2010

Beautiful photography...captures a complex restorative project. Congratulations to all involved.
Bette Yozell08.20.2010

Wow, Abby! Beautiful work. Must be so fulfilling! I always knew...
brent02.10.2011

You should grow sunflowers in that garden depending on where that is in new orleans. Some of the toxic chemicals from the hurricane wreckage is said to still be in the soil, the sunflower plants repair the soil.

RSS Feed

Add a Comment

Products

Raw Mirror

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the rawest of them all? Designer Stanley Ruiz cut this birch plywood piece to expose the unique grain of the wood, while a leather strap suspends it from the wall…
Organic Basil Bamboo Grow Pot

I deem having fresh basil on hand a necessity. Presented in a sustainable bamboo pot, this is one green gift that keeps on giving.

Dwell Collection

Modern Family at Dwell on Design

With considering the ever-expanding children's market in the modern design realm, the plethora of visitors, tiny people, and exhibitors at The Modern Family Zone at Dwell on Design was not…

Events

Recent Acquisitions

"Recent Acquisitions" celebrates the ongoing addition of important works of art to the Menil Collection by gift, purchase, and bequest. While some of these works have been included in…
Fairfield Porter Raw: The Creative Process of an American Master

Fairfield Porter Raw: The Creative Process of an American Master, an exhibition of approximately forty works drawn from the Parrish Art Museum's extensive Porter holdings, will open Sunday, April…