Beyond Bourbon Street:
Building Growth in Partnership with the Community
The Urban Conservancy Begins Effort With Tulane University's Office Of Service Learning
For the project Beyond Bourbon Street: Building Growth in Partnership with the Community, The
Urban Conservancy is working with Tulane students to document examples
of positive commercial and residential infill and adaptive reuse in New
Orleans, illustrating how business development can be balanced with
protection of New Orleans' unique historic urban environment with cost
effective and financially successful results. This information will be
used to create an educational tool suitable for presentation to
neighborhood organizations, civic leaders, and developers.
Geoff Coats of The Urban Conservancy (center) with Professor Jim Elliot and Tulane Students In Front Of The Arabella Bus Barn.
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Student volunteers work with Urban Conservancy staff to
photograph sites, collect basic information about projects from
developers and city agencies, and document the roles of neighborhood
residents in shaping the final projects. The results of this
investigation will be shaped into a highly visual educational tool. The
final product will be executed in two formats. The first will be a
flexible presentation capable of being tailored to a number of
audiences including neighborhood organizations, citizens groups,
business groups, civic leaders and real estate developers. The
information will also be translated into a web format for inclusion on
the Urban Conservancy web site.
Work on this project began with the opening of
the academic semester at Tulane University in January of 2002. The
Urban Conservancy expects to have a working version of the presentation
completed by Summer 2002. This will serve as the core of an expandable
and customizable visual presentation documenting the economic,
political, and community benefits of sensitive development projects in
historic neighborhoods of New Orleans.
The need for this project became apparent over
several years of working on commercial development projects in New
Orleans. Time and again citizens working to protect the integrity of
their historic neighborhoods while promoting economic development are
told that suburban-style developments are a necessary evil. Examples of
appropriate infill or adaptive use from other cities across the country
are inevitably met with the response, "That is great in San
Francisco/Seattle/Savannah but it just won't work in New Orleans." The
Urban Conservancy understands that a highly visual presentation
supported by economic and development data documenting successful
projects in New Orleans will prove valuable to citizens, politicians,
and developers as our city moves to confront the challenges of blending
the new with the existing urban fabric.
You can help The Urban Conservancy celebrate the good things already going on around New Orleans.
Please send your tax-deductible contribution to:
The Urban Conservancy
1518 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
The Urban Conservancy
info@urbanconservancy.org