A year after the United States' largest natural disaster, many people here remain on their property.
Tucked in a landscape of bayous, under unbroken skies, is the quiet town of DeLisle, Mississippi, with a post-Katrina population topping one thousand. A year after the United States' largest natural disaster, many people here remain on their property, remembering homes flattened by a storm surge that brought unimaginable destruction. The stretches of lawn are now commonly scattered with narrow, sterile FEMA trailers, with regrettably few windows to properly appreciate the surroundings.
At dawn on a warm August morning, residents of DeLisle remain unseen. But myself and 12 other architecture students from New York City have already unloaded our tools and put on hardhats, as per our daily routine. Since late June, the Design Workshop, a second-year studio at Parsons The New School for Design, has been constructing 39571 InfoWash, a Laundromat and information center designed the previous semester. Comprised of 12 graduate students, one undergraduate, and two instructors, all stationed in donated trailer homes, only a few of the group had prior knowledge of life on a construction site. From January through August, the Design Workshop presented us with a crash course in the profession, from site analysis and design to the specification of materials and the realities of budget constraints, finally offering the ultimate reward: seeing our vision manifest, from first sketch to final fastener.
As promptly as the sun comes forth, the weekly meeting begins. We need to resolve a critical roof detail, one that would slightly alter the design but could ultimately speed up the construction process–never a bad idea for a building with a two-month timeframe. Specifically, should the final bay of sleepers be adjusted to gradually eliminate the drainage slope, and thereby avoid the slim possibility of exposing a ridge? By 7 a.m., after consideration of our technical capabilities and scheduling realities, we decide to maintain the ridge for now, but to examine a third possibility: exposing the joists in the final bay (an unconditioned space), thus adjusting the design to play off the already visible joists in the breezeway. Such a change would reinterpret the original intent in a way previously unconsidered.
Envisioned by client and DeLisle native Martha Murphy, the program of 39571 InfoWash began with her desire to create a place that could meet both the physical and emotional needs of her community. A brief was developed to combine everyday services with more temporary, rehabilitative ones. A design-build studio program launched in the mid 1990s as part of Parsons' commitment to design as a social practice, the Design Workshop has collaborated annually with a variety of nonprofit organizations and public agencies known for engaging urban issues, from green space and education to recreational activities for children, with 39571 InfoWash the first to occur outside of the New York City area. Design Workshop members met Murphy when a former student visited her just six days after Katrina on behalf of SHoP Architects, which constructed a temporary business incubator, 39571 Project, that shares the site, and the zip code reference, of 39571 InfoWash. It was immediately clear that the potential existed for a productive relationship between Murphy and the Design Workshop; the two projects now stand as proof of that collaboration.
The design development of 39571 InfoWash began under the studio direction of David J. Lewis, a principal of New York City-based firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis and director of Parsons Graduate Program of Architecture, and with the guidance of Peter Wheelwright, then chair of the department. Taught in conjunction with a construction technology class, we began designing individually, quickly moving into groups of two, and later four. By late March, talks with contractors and a structural engineer had begun.
A 2,000-square-foot freestanding building with 900 square feet of interior space, 39571 InfoWash gained its form from the program's dual role as refuge and information exchange. Beginning at the foundation and moving into the roof is a solid eastern façade of perforated aluminum edged by a fascia of sheet aluminum. Together, they form a protective layer around the cedar wall siding, horizontally encasing the Laundromat and information center. The storefront, on the south face, is left open, while a luminous north façade glows at night to face a stretch of undeveloped forest.
Nearing construction, a significant responsibility we faced was to specify materials, from the sizing and grade of lumber to the opacity level of the Polygal walls–critical in creating the "lightbox" effect desired for the building's north façade–to the choice to employ SIPs (rated for winds up to 150 miles per hour). Post-Katrina, this was more than a question of design value and cost; availability and accessibility were more critical than ever. Local distribution from the south, usually easier on shipping costs yet riskier time wise, had to be avoided when possible. Ultimately, shipments were broken up, with some materials sent directly to Mississippi and others to Parsons in Manhattan, in order to minimize scheduling difficulties.
On-site construction began with the erection of 18 four-inch-square steel columns set onto a recently poured concrete slab, with each column positioned by eight or ten students. From sawhorses, they were raised manually, and in the heat of the afternoon, as the frame of the structure began to form, the demands and rewards of two months to follow were foremost in the minds of all present.
Student involvement in every aspect of the project and its setting was critical to its success. In DeLisle, we were accepted as members of the community, a reminder of the active involvement of numerous volunteers during the year following the storm. The responsibility inherent in the Design Workshop ensures an understanding of architecture as a discipline realized through a complex, functioning structure. No longer restrained to expression through graphics and models, we understood the role of the architect to be that of a director of detailing and consistency–a participant in all aspects of the craft.
Project: 39571 InfoWash, DeLisle, Mississippi client: Martha Murphy, Mississippi Katrina Fund, DeLisle Corner
Architect: The Design Workshop, Parsons The New School for Design, New York City–David J. Lewis (studio instructor), Terry Erickson (summer studio instructor), Joel Stoehr (summer staff), Huy Bui, Ivan Chabra, Sarah Coffin, Christian Eusubio, Dominique Gonfard, Kailin Gregga, Dominic Griffin, Parker B. Lee, Laura Lyon, Kip Katich, Nora Meehan, Shana Sandberg, Emily Wetherbee (students)
Architect of Record: ShoP Architects, New York City
Engineers: Dunne & Markis Consulting Structural Engineers (structural); Compton Engineering (structural, civil); Hargrove and Associates (M/E/P)
Subcontractors: T & K Trucking (foundation); Culbertson Contractors (windows) area: 2,000 square feet
