CaseStudy:Demolition and replacement of houses at Jackson Barracks

Through Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance funding, the Louisiana Army National Guard (LAARNG) will demolish and replace Buildings 17, 19, 22, 26, 28, 29, and 32 Beauregard Drive, which are residential buildings located in Area A, Jackson Barracks in New Orleans.

All of these buildings are of frame construction and representative of the utilitarian architecture constructed at Jackson Barracks during the early 20th century. While the seven houses were built during the early 20th century, they are adjacent to the original garrison buildings at Jackson Barracks, which date from the 1830s. Several of the seven houses suffered from Formosan termite damage, and each of the houses was heavily damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which led to LAARNG’s decision to demolish the buildings and replace them with new houses.

When FEMA began the consultation process, it proposed to replace Building 26 in a manner that would have potentially disturbed a National Register-eligible archaeological site. Through consultation, FEMA and LAARNG devised a solution that would avoid the archaeological site and protect it following construction activities.

FEMA’s first consultation meeting took place on June 10, 2008. Consultation meetings continued during the summer and fall of 2008. The consulting parties executed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on November 21, 2008.

As executed, the MOA includes the following:
 * recordation of the seven historic houses proposed for demolition;
 * design review of the proposed replacement houses, which will be similar in design to the early 20th century houses;
 * a process for addressing the inadvertent discovery of human remains including FEMA’s notification of Indian tribes about such discoveries;
 * updating the 1976 National Register nomination of Jackson Barracks;
 * preservation in place of a National Register-eligible archaeological site.

Consulting parties include LAARNG; Facilities Planning and Control, Louisiana Division of Administration; the National Trust for Historic Preservation; Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans; and Holy Cross Neighborhood Association.

The undertaking is part of an overall effort to return Jackson Barracks to a usable condition. Because Jackson Barracks is located adjacent to the Holy Cross neighborhood, residents in the neighborhood are keenly interested in projects taking place at Jackson Barracks since they will influence the revitalization and repopulation of the neighborhood and other areas that have been slow to recover since Hurricane Katrina. This undertaking successfully balances historic preservation goals with economic recovery objectives.