Green Street is a simple concept that proposes to bisect the site with a strip of continuous green landscape and community programming.  All apartments and single-family homes have large outdoor porches and “communal stoops” that encourage informal social interaction between neighbors.  The community center and daycare are placed centrally on the site.  This is to draw non-residents into the site, giving them the freedom to explore the complex as public space, and become familiar with its sustainable features.  Other public amenities such as a community garden, public park, playground, and basketball court further invite the neighborhood to experience the Green Street.  Ultimately, the design provides much needed assets to the local community while promoting inclusive, sustainable design that provides an alternative to low-density tract development.

The apartment building design is a reinterpretation of the traditional rowhouse in New Orleans.  In this case, each unit splits the common wall and provides four feet of “breathing room” between units.  This allows for cross-ventilation and increased daylighting for energy savings.  One key feature of all apartments is direct street access with no interior lobby or confined hallways.  This gives each occupant a recognizable identity within the Green Street community.  Neighbors associate a physical façade and front door with each unique occupant.  Each apartment is accessible from the exterior directly by walking up the common stoop, similar to a walk-up brownstone.  Up to four units can share one stoop and staircase, increasing chance encounters with neighbors and impromptu staircase meetings. 

Green Street is intended to become an asset to the Holy Cross neighborhood, and an example of responsible, sustainable design that respects the environment and the local community.