Transforming one of the last relatively poorly developed sections of urban area in New Orleans in a modern district that can rival the historic French Quarter or the City Gardens District, and in the case of the river district of the city, work, work Underground in the form of a massive vault of underground rainwater.
The river district expects to build a New Orleans neighborhood that is prepared by storms, sustainable, multimodal and integrated with neighborhoods nearby, says the project team, which includes Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exposition Hall and investors from the district of the district of River District.
More than $ 30 million in infrastructure work for mixed use of almost 40 hectares began in June 2024, says Tara Hernandez, founder and president of JCH properties+, and a member of investors in the district project of the district project. Laugh.
The work was to install the stormwater system in the district, along with utility work, including power lines, water and fiber.
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is next to the 39 -hectare project, six pairs. The land is owned by the authority of the exhibition hall, which launched the project in September 2019 to link the warehouse and garden districts of the city with the Riu Center and the Convention Center through the new development of ‘Mixed use.
It is a signature project for the architect Gensler in his central southern region. The firm’s work at River District dates from 2020, when the firm began working on a master plan for the overlapping district of the Convention Center district, says Tiger Lyon, Gensler Design Director and leader in the area of the area. Regional practices for the development of offices.
The first big push for the Gensler team was to create development design guidelines. With the contractors Boh Bros. Construction and Broadmoor, is currently working to install an infrastructure frame, which has some old Orleans -type complications.
The 92,000-cu-P-ft modular rainwater retention vault was designed as if all the six plots of the river district project had to be developed until the maximum admissible area of waterproof surfaces.
Cortesia Cortesia Gensler/River District New Orleans
Go with the flow
With the Mississippi river very close to the southern border of the district, a high water level presents challenges for the project team, which responds with one of the largest rainwater retention vaults in Spain, Able to run running for all 39 hectares.
Hernandez, who added that it is one of the largest modular systems in the state and will provide life protection against floods, erosion and other environmental damage.
Similar systems have been used in Texas for large -scale developments, but the New Orleans project is among the first in Louisiana on this scale. “Living with water in New Orleans is a challenge for any development and that the river district has carefully dealt with from the beginning,” he says.
“Drug 2 feet and have water.”
—Ruhan Isim, Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services, ILSI Engineering
Supervising the installation of laps was Ruhan Isim, Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services of IlSi Engineering based on New Orleans, the civil engineer of the project.
He says that the work was completed just before the end of last year on the rainwater lap of 92,000-CU-PPPPPPPP-PEUS. It can collect the first rainfall of 1.25 inches all over the place, calculated as if each of the six plots developed to the maximum permissible amount of waterproof surfaces according to the city code. With the current levels of expected waterproof surfaces, development should only supply about 65,000 storage feet, he adds.
“Suppose all six plots will be 95% of search and, based on this, we do this calculation,” says Isim. “Some places will be very green and still suppose they will be concrete [for vault capacity calculation]. “”
The completed vault is 188 feet long, 65 feet wide and 8 feet, 4 inches high, with 6 -inch concrete walls buried to less than 24 inches of dirt.
Manufactured by Stormtrap, based on Illinois, the modular vault is a profitable option and a good option for a place with a limited space and for one with a large volume of rainwater, according to Isim. This is the first stormtrap to be installed in the state.
“The good is that due to volume, the cost per cubic foot is much cheaper,” he says, adding that the modules do not require much preparation other than a regular concrete slab or a stone base. The excavation of the area required attention to the elevation of the river and needed a lot of drainage to the mild soils.
In this case, approximately 1 feet of stone was first established no. Concrete slab and 6 inches of additional stone on which the modules were placed.
Two 24-in. The pipes at the top of the system, fixed to an abrupt grade, allow the discharge if the water level reaches this elevation. The withholding vault is separated from the stormwater system on the streets of the district, which includes a more conventional system with 64 in. Isim says they meet in a culvert painting at the Henderson Street Convention Center.
Groundwater is at a high elevation of the area, given the proximity of the river, says Isim. “You excavate two feet, you have water,” he says.
Lyon states that the proximity and its effect on the water table provided logistics challenges for the team.
“The schedule can be jeopardized if the river occurs on a certain height and the water table rises,” he says. “Turn off the construction and operation until the water level drops below the target threshold.”
The withholding vault is in the heart of the district, Lyon Notes, adjoining the office building, and is placed under a public park near the fast bus traffic stop. The system also provides flexibility as project development progresses, with opportunities for additions such as pocket parks.
“Because we don’t have to deal with [water retention in each separate parcel]We are [able to do] Parking throughout the district and parking, “he says. To facilitate the parking of the office building, the initial concept was reviewed to include a podium.
The first vertical construction of the project is a class A offices building for Shell oil, which includes impact resistant glass and other functions to support hurricane damage.
Cortaleria Gensler/Cypress equies
A Renaissance of the Office
The first vertical construction, which is broken in early February, is the class office tower at approximately 140,000 square meters that will serve as Shell Oil headquarters for operations on the Golf Costa. It is also the first new class office building to be built in the city since 1989, according to Lyon.
What was originally planned as a multitenant office building has become a building for Shell Suit, an example of different stairs of commercial space and tenant offices that the river district hopes to provide to New Orleans .
The building is designed for resistance to hurricanes and floods, adds Lyon, noting that during the Katrina hurricane in 2005, the nearby gardens district was one of the few local areas that had relatively few floods.
All buildings in the river district will be raised 4 feet above the elevation of the base flood. Gensler works with the local landscape architect SMM on a plan to move from the road to the buildings, as in many places the objective of the project is for an urban design near the street.
The Shell building will have a redundancy in fiber and 5G power, with backup generators for emergency operation and glass qualified by impact. Hernandez says that the river district aims to ensure useful plant -based solutions that include backup energy production and reduced emissions.
“The schedule can be jeopardized if the river is produced on a certain height and the water table rises. Turn off the construction and operation.”
—Tiger Lyon, director of design and leader of the Regional Practice Area for Office Development, Gensler
Lyon says that the project has two power redundancy options: to tie to the central utility plant existing at the Convention Center or to rehabilitate the historic electric power station on Market Street on the outskirts of the project area. Gensler has developed initial concepts to transform the installation into a neighborhood cogeneration installation and an entertainment anchor.
Hernandez says that the power station is owned separately, and its development is managed by another team, although they are all part of the investor team in the district of the Riu district.
“We are excited to witness the resuscitation of this historic milestone,” he says.
The office building represents the first phase of the district’s construction, says Lyon, which must be followed by affordable housing projects that make up the second phase. Plans ask that half of the 900 residential units planned to be used for affordable homes.
The aim is a mixed district, with cultural elements and sporting elements, according to him, pointing to various ideas that have been floated for additions such as a Museum of Civil Rights or a Museum of Local Music.
“We are one of the most walkable cities in the country and we are prioritizing opportunities to improve the multimodal transport and transport infrastructure,” says Hernandez. “The River District team is studying how the city flows and works and how this rhythm should be integrated at each step of our development.”
