Alternative Spring Break participants pose with the Garden North Walkways and flowerbeds they constucted at the Peoples’s Enviromental Center in New Orleans, LA.

On Saturday, March 10th, 22 Wentworth students flew down to New Orleans, Louisiana to participate in an Alternative Spring Break trip for 10 days. Under the guidance of Architecture Professors Lora Kim, Mark Pasnik and Beth Gibb, as well as staff member Aaron Willette and private contractor Edward Lavelle, the group renovated the People’s Environmental Center (PEC) in the Tremé section of New Orleans.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck in August of 2005, Wentworth formed a partnership with the Ujamaa CDC, a local partner in New Orleans. Out of this affiliation sprang the idea for the PEC, which was incorporated into a design project in last year’s sophomore Architecture studio. A nonprofit organization, the PEC was created to educate residents about the toxins that have seeped into the soil as a result of the hurricane, and to offer solutions on how to remediate their yards in a cost-effective manner.

Construction began this past January, when a group of 21 students traveled to New Orleans shortly after New Years. This group erected a lab station, tore down a fence, and primed and painted the site, both inside and out. The January trip was more design-focused and less labor-intensive than the March trip, but still featured plenty of hard work. Students completed the nitty-gritty work necessary in order to pave the way for the major construction accomplished on the March trip.