by Damian Holmes

Van Alen Institute recently announced the international competition Future Ground, and is now accepting submissions from professionals in landscape design, architecture, planning, public policy, and other related fields to develop innovative strategies for vacant land reuse in New Orleans. The competition is supported by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA), which owns over 2,000 vacant lots and has become a regional and national leader in reuse of vacant lots for community resilience and development.

Approximately 30,000 empty lots and abandoned structures dot the landscape of New Orleans today, many of them a legacy of Hurricane Katrina. As the City nears the 10-year anniversary of the storm, Future Ground will generate flexible design and policy strategies to forecast and accommodate changes in density, demand, climate and landscape in New Orleans over the next half-century, thereby transforming these abandoned landscapes into resources for the near-term and future city.