Tulane researchers receive grant to repurpose abandoned "separate but equal" schools in Louisiana

2020-08-21T13:36:00-04:00

Laura Blokker, interim director of the Tulane University School of Architecture's Preservation Studies program, and Andrew Liles, assistant professor of architecture at the school, have won the Richard L. Blinder Award, a $15,000 grant from the Trustees of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation that will aid the researchers in their efforts to repurpose abandoned school facilities originally built to enforce Jim Crow-era racial segregation in education.

The schools, built as part a last-ditch attempt to establish "separate but equal" educational facilities in the state, were abandoned as racial integration began to take hold in 1970, and have sat empty for many years. The grant award will allow researchers to work with alumni of the schools in designing reuse strategies for the buildings, Tulane News reports.

The research project will include identifying the surviving schools across the state so that the research team can "assess and categorize the overall design, plans and...

Abandoned schools = new development opportunities

2015-08-05T19:02:00-04:00

Many school buildings that used to house children now just primarily house debris thanks to a precipitous drop in public school enrollment over several decades. One independent website puts the figure at over 1,000 abandoned schools in states stretching from West Virginia to Indiana.

Some advocate selling the empty buildings to charter schools, while others see the buildings as potential spaces for artists and inventive start-ups. According to NPR, "A few deals are in the works to renovate old schools into apartments, offices and artist spaces." In Japan, so-called "haiko camps" allow adults to camp overnight in refurbished former schools to both satisfy nostalgia and keep the buildings from becoming the eyesores and crime scenes they've become in the United States.

Archinect - News

Tulane researchers receive grant to repurpose abandoned "separate but equal" schools in Louisiana

Abandoned schools = new development opportunities