New Orleans Gets Young, Green Designers Working to Rebuild

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)’s annual Natural Talent Design Competition will take place in New Orleans, it has been announced, for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The contest aims to focus young designers’ efforts on rebuilding sustainably and affordably. Working with the Salvation Army’s EnviRenew Initiative, this year's competition has been adjusted to acknowledge construction obstacles in the New Orleans region, while still implementing LEED principles.

Competitors will be separated into two groups – students and young professionals – where their challenge will be to design an 800-square-foot LEED for Homes project. The four best designs will be displayed at Greenbuild 2010, and constructed in  New Orleans’s Broadmoor neighborhood come November. The homes will be judged by a panel of 11, which will consider input from local residents, on several LEED-certification categories such as energy efficiency, water reuse, and indoor air quality.

--Allison McCann