National Trust for Historic Preservation Urges Veterans Affairs to Reconsider Choice of Mid-City Site for New Hospital
Posted November 25, 2008 | Contact pr@nthp.org or 202-588-6141
In response to today's site selection announcements by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Louisiana State University for their new hospitals in New Orleans' Mid-City neighborhood, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called the decisions a serious error, saying there are better alternatives available. The National Trust for Historic Preservation strongly urged the VA to work with the incoming Obama Administration to explore the alternative sites that would restore needed health care facilities faster and at less cost, while preserving much more of the historic Mid-City neighborhood. At the same time, the National Trust for Historic Preservation noted that the VA's decision is based on the desire to co-locate with an LSU medical facility – whose projected $1.2 billion funding is far from assured.
"In selecting these sites, the VA and LSU have made a serious error. They chose the alternatives that will not only be the most time-consuming, costly, and complex, to implement, but will needlessly destroy a historic neighborhood where residents are struggling to rebuild their community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina" said Richard Moe president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "The VA and LSU had other options, yet they chose the most difficult and destructive route to delivering health care to the region's veterans and a medical teaching facility to the community. We strongly urge the VA and LSU to reconsider, and take another look at other less harmful alternatives on the table."
"We placed Charity Hospital and the adjacent Mid-City neighborhood on our list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Placesthis year due to the threat these decisions pose to this historic neighborhood," Moe noted. "We believe that homeowners who have returned to New Orleans post-Katrina to rebuild their homes and their community should not lose their homes when other viable alternatives would be faster and more cost-effective in accomplishing the VA's and LSU's goals."
"The sites selected by the VA and LSU would demolish fifteen square blocks within the Mid-City National Register Historic District, including some 165 historic structures, most of them homes, to make way for the new hospitals," said Walter Gallas, director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's New Orleans Field Office. "This is a lose-lose situation all around."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, working with its partner the Foundation for Historical Louisiana (FHL) and local neighborhood groups, had identified other alternatives.
One alternative calls for the VA to build on the site currently proposed for the new Louisiana State University (LSU) hospital with LSU occupying a renovated, rehabbed Charity Hospital as the new Academic Medical Center. This alternative would produce a 21st-century health care and medical education use for Charity Hospital, and allow for an integrated synergistic relationship with not only LSU, but with Tulane Medical Center, Xavier University, Delgado School of Nursing, the new Bio-Innovations Center and the Cancer Consortium. This alternative tracks the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) and was offered as an option by Goody Clancy consultants, currently working on the city's master plan.
Another alternative would co-locate the new VA and LSU hospitals on the site currently slated for a new LSU hospital. This alternative—consistent with good urban planning principles—is also consistent with UNOP and offered by Goody Clancy.
Another possibility is the commercial site containing the vacant Lindy Boggs Medical Center. No homes or other historic buildings occupy this site, it has fewer parcels of land to assemble, and the land would be available immediately from a willing seller.
These alternatives would meet the VA's goals of returning medical care as quickly and cost-effectively as possible for veterans and others, leading the National Trust for Historic Preservation to question the timing of today's announcement.
"A controversial decision with profound implications for the City of New Orleans and its citizens' health care is being handed down without adequate consideration of all other options," said Richard Moe. "We feel that veterans and the people of New Orleans would be better served if the VA's options were reviewed with the incoming Obama Administration, and if the state's financing plans were given a hard look. Health care is too important to veterans and the City of New Orleans to rush through a bad decision in the twilight days of the current Administration."
"Veterans have been waiting far too long for access to the high quality medical care they deserve in New Orleans," said Ned Diefenthal, a member of the Board of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation and former State Chairman of the Louisiana Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. "We owe it to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces to care for them in a timely and accessible manner, with the finest possible medical care. Unfortunately, the VA's site decision in lower Mid-City is the wrong decision. There are other alternatives that are far better for all parties."
Additionally, the cost of tearing down one of the city's oldest neighborhoods would be supported by federal dollars that would be better spent on housing and neighborhood revitalization in New Orleans. The proposed city budget includes $79 million in federal funds for land acquisition for the new VA hospital—meaning that taxpayers will foot the bill to demolish the homes of their neighbors who have struggled to rebuild since Katrina.
"If the VA demolishes a large swath of lower Mid-City, and LSU follows suit by demolishing an adjacent section of lower Mid-City for its new hospital, it would mean the end of this historic New Orleans neighborhood," said Gallas. "In addition, if neither LSU nor the VA find a use for Charity Hospital, its fate would remain uncertain, especially in this financial climate, making the neglect and ultimate demolition of this solid, usable building more likely than ever."
A report released in August by the architectural firm RMJM Hillier, global experts in the construction and renovation of modern health care facilities, concluded that Charity Hospital could be reborn as an ultra-modern research and teaching hospital at 78% of the cost and a minimum of two years faster than the proposed new LSU hospital. The report was commissioned by the Foundation for Historical Louisiana.
"RMJM Hillier did an exhaustive study of Charity Hospital, and came away assured that it could be a state-of-the-art research and teaching hospital," FHL Executive Vice-Chair Sandra Stokes said. "It would mean stripping Charity down to its bones, but the new Charity Hospital would be a medical marvel on par with the most advanced hospitals in the world for decades to come. In addition, it would be an impetus to economic revitalization of the Central Business District and an anchor to the biosciences corridor. Best of all, RMJM Hillier found that a re-born Charity would be less expensive to build and would take less time than constructing a new hospital—without destroying a neighborhood. This is the kind of win-win solution we need."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation (www.PreservationNation.org) is a non-profit membership organization bringing people together to protect, enhance and enjoy the places that matter to them. By saving the places where great moments from history – and the important moments of everyday life – took place, the National Trust for Historic Preservation helps revitalize neighborhoods and communities, spark economic development and promote environmental sustainability. With headquarters in Washington, DC, eight regional and field offices, 29 historic sites, and partner organizations in 50 states, territories, and the District of Columbia, the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education, advocacy and resources to a national network of people, organizations and local communities committed to saving places, connecting us to our history and collectively shaping the future of America’s stories.
