JHPA Recap

Here are my notes on the meeting at JHPA. If I missed anything, add it in the comments!

-Jen

New Orleans, New York. Thoughts on Building Typology.

Analogy to the Three Little Pigs--the masonry buildings are the ones that survive the wood ones are simply picked up and destroyed.

Tim lynch-- member of a structural engineering firm that left to work with DOB, started a forensics unit for the department of buildings to explain and predict building (structural) failures. Excavations causing problems conversation about the merchant's house.

New vs. Old construction. Example: Grain density of woods used now and then. Older woods have a much thinner but tighter grain structure.

New Orleans. Built in a basin, cant deny the water. Many buildings have little for a foundation, and rest in masonry piers. Narrow board ceilings and wide board walls. Wood buildings on masonry pier foundations with no mechanical attatchments. In the Ninth Ward, wood buildings were lifted off their foundations and carried away.

Many of the Katrina-affected structures had pre-existing damage, like termites. Northern woods used in their construction had no natural defense to insects (such as a tropical wood like cyprus would have). So, many of the buildings were in bad condition when the storm hit. It was a combination of bad materials and bad maintenance.

Habitat for humanity built raised shotgun plan houses on reinforced concrete foundations. They put all mechanical systems above the waterline, too. Houses were built 4ft above ground level to meet code. 

In many cases, the first step coming into a storm-damaged city is removing buildings from FEMA's demolition list. Example of 200 yr old house written off by a person with no prior experience without leaving her car for a fallen chimney top. It is generally in the interest of the city for more damage to be written off because they get more money. The system is flawed and needs a huge turnaround.

New York and Sandy: Ellis island hit hard. Battery island Ferry terminal, sister to Hoboken ferry terminal which they have conceded will just periodically flood.

Schermerhorn row. Completely devastated, have to get creative in prevention.

MUST HAVE RATIONAL REACTION!! 
slow dry of Mast Chocolate and Bowne & Co. printing. Wood was expanding and buckling upward. Did not believe they would return to normal. Initial response was to seal and dehumidify asap. Irrational initial reaction! Well meaning but misguided help. New Orleans buildings, volunteers were quick to remove anything wet, including similar wooden floors and other historic fabric of buildings.

Brighton beach Jewish Center. Lots of deferred maintenance and cellar damage (common theme).

Ellis island. NO EMERGENCY PLAN. Heritage Preservation organization came in post Sandy, and the first thing they ask for is an emergency plan and protocol for historic buildings and collections assessment.

Should we just fill in the cellars? Would have had 2ft of damage in the Seaport instead of cellar and ground floor damage. Damage potential verses loss of square footage.

Red hook rowhouse model, pretty popular. No wind damage, water damage to cellar.

Recovery and preparation approach: Move infrastructure. Approach things rationally. Be proactive, include structural supplemental work in advance. Remove minimal material.

Mold reaction: new Orleans and the seaport. Sheet rock is ruined up to waterline but you can otherwise mist the material with biocide and kill mold and save material.

Breezy point: avoidance of building codes came back to bite them in the butt! Should not have been permanent residences. 

Outer banks North Carolina. Washes away every few years but they keep rebuilding. The land and water border in in flux. Can't just look at the tide line in summer.

Deerfield Massachusetts. Move historic artifacts to a safe zone. Take them out of context, but they are safe. Which evil do you choose? Cant just clean up and move back in!

New Orleans Preservation Resource Center. 

Recognized that it is a historic town and that is what makes the city, that had to be maintained to keep the tourists coming. The historic preservation response in nyc has been different. There hasn't been much of an official response.