New Orleans is no stranger to blighted properties, and Mayor Landrieu has made decreasing the number of blighted properties a priority. But just because a property is uninhabitable does not mean that parts of it cannot be salvaged and diverted from Louisiana's overflowing landfills. The Green Project has been a constant deconstruction advocate and is playing an active roll in prolonging the lives of these quality materials by keeping them in use.
Describe the mayor’s anti-blight campaign.
"As a continuing process from the last administration, Mayor Landrieu has set the goal of demolishing ten thousand blighted properties in the next three years."
How has The Green Project joined in this initiative?
"The Green Project has taken a very active leadership role in the salvage process.We are daily removing items from both New Orleans Blighted, and Louisiana Land Trust properties prior to the structures being demolished."
How does this fit with The Green Project’s mission as an organization?
"This initiative is a perfect fit with our threefold mission. Diverting items from the landfill, providing a moderate price alternative to the local community for building supplies, and creating a mindset of value and reuse, rather than disposal. Additionally, in many cases, we are preserving wonderful examples of historic New Orleans architectural pieces."
What is the time frame for the project?
"The Mayor’s initiative has a stated goal of three years. The Louisiana Land Trust Properties are slated to be completed mid 2011."
What type of materials are we getting?
"A typical day sees us getting antique long leaf yellow pine, cypress, and historic door and window units. We also are salvaging historic architectural items such as cornices, corbels, and mantels. Many of the newer homes offer the more common items such as modern dimensional lumber, terracotta ridge tiles, iron hand rails, iron security bars and doors, and most items you would associate with a sixty or seventy year old home."
Struggles? Accomplishments?
"The greatest struggle is managing a wide ranging, sometimes geographically spread out salvage operation, along with processing for sale, large quantities of material.
The best measure of accomplishment is that we are diverting approximately fifteen cubic yards of material per day that would otherwise be added to our landfills, providing a reasonably priced alternative for building materials, creating jobs, and preserving our architectural heritage."
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