Global Green News
School rebuilding boom boosts N.O. economy
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE. JULY 31, 2009. By Darran Simon.
For firms like Ryan Gootee General Contractors, government-financed projects are providing
a lifeline.
Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune
With a turbulent economy and tight credit taking the wind out of private-sector projects involving office buildings and condominiums, Gootee's workload has shifted to publicly financed projects such as the renovation of Joseph A. Craig Elementary in Treme.
Ryan Gootee's Metairie-based company is among the beneficiaries of one post-Katrina construction push that could sustain contractors -- and the swarms of carpenters, brick masons, electricians and others they employ -- for some time, a bright spot in the New Orleans economy.
During the next five years, a flurry of public school construction projects, valued at about $700 million, will roll out in New Orleans, with the bulk of the tab paid through Federal Emergency Management Agency recovery funds.
Five new-construction and renovation projects wrapping up in the next few months represent the first part of the largest school-building initiative in the city's modern history, recalling an aggressive construction program financed in the 1800s through the bequest of plantation owner and philanthropist John McDonogh. That effort resulted in a network of schools named in McDonogh's honor, a unique trait of the city's public infrastructure.
Implementation of the first phase of a Recovery School District and Orleans Parish School Board master plan for rebuilding schools will bring major investment to dozens of sites. That could yield up to 17,500 jobs of varying duration, assuming one job is created for every $40,000 spent, according to Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development group. In addition to construction jobs, that estimate includes other jobs created as contractors buy supplies and as project spending circulates in the local economy.
"You're talking about a five-year span of time with $700 million spread over it, " Gootee said. "It keeps things constant."
Gulfport, Miss.-based Roy Anderson Corp. has about 100 people working on the construction of Greater Gentilly High on Paris Avenue and Langston Hughes Elementary near the Fair Grounds, with most of the workers drawn from the New Orleans area, said the company's vice president, Judson McLeod. Such projects offer "a great opportunity" for contractors, he said.
A LEED leader
The construction boom promises a collection of energy- and storm-resistant "green" campuses with emphasis on such goals as improved air quality and increased use of daylight. That could transform New Orleans into a major player in a national movement, school officials and others say.
As many as 20 campuses, most of them entirely new, included in the master plan's first phase could attain LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Silver certification, a coveted status in a rating system for environmentally sensitive buildings. The nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council set up the rating system.
"It means we are investing in children, really for the first time in a long time, providing them with an environment in which they can excel -- and not just get by, " said Beth Galante, director of the New Orleans arm of Global Green USA, an environmental advocacy group.
Galante said studies show that so-called green schools cost on average about 3 percent more than other schools to build, but a steady return on the investment can be seen in lower energy and water bills and in improved conditions for teaching.
Global Green has contributed $720,000 toward construction costs at L.B. Landry High, a new-construction high school in Algiers, and at a renovated Andrew H. Wilson Elementary in Broadmoor. Financed by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, the Global Green work at each of the schools will include solar panels, a wetland habitat and rainwater cisterns.
While public and private school systems in Washington, D.C., Colorado and Los Angeles have led the way in using the new environmental designs, crumbling conditions -- especially in the wake of Katrina destruction -- found in New Orleans paved the way for a new generation of campuses.
"It's not happening at this volume in very many places in the country, " said Anisa Baldwin Metzger, a Green Building Council staffer who has been embedded in the Recovery School District since last fall.
Baldwin Metzger guides architects and construction companies in the process required to achieve the LEED status. She also helps educators incorporate new features into class experiences for students.
"There's going to be this movement here. And it's created because we're building many schools at once, but also because of this commitment from the district, " Baldwin Metzer said.
