Building By Dismantling
August 16, 2007
Rick Denhart, Mercy Corps' Director of Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery. Photo: Jolynn Fisher/Mercy Corps
Rick Denhart, Mercy Corps' New Orleans-based Director of Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery, has been in construction - and deconstruction - all his life. He started his vocation as a child apprenticing with his father - a builder - who taught him how to take things apart and redo them. By the time he reached high school, he was building new homes.
After college, he moved to the Middle East where he gained a wide range of experience building small cities, and also seeing how local craftsmen drew from limited resources just as they had for thousands of years. Upon returning to the Pacific Northwest, he went into business for himself renovating old warehouses into new retail and living spaces while using as much of the old materials as possible.
Then, a life-altering opportunity came about: a local museum design firm asked Denhart to manage the building of the museum exhibitry for the Warm Springs Native American community. Once again, he was working with a culture that was thousands of years old, with a strong tradition of reusing materials and a conscious awareness of nature's fragile balance.
From the Warm Springs people, Denhart came to rethink what "artifacts" are important in a community. He began to recognize how to connect generations with simple things like an old window frame, a battered doorknob or wainscoting from decaying buildings.
Today, as the leader of Mercy Corps' programs in New Orleans, he's helping hurricane survivors learn and build on those same lessons.
Mercy Corps: In layman's terms, what exactly is deconstruction?
Rick Denhart: Deconstruction is the dismantling of buildings by hand for maximum reuse of materials. But the best definition I've heard comes from a local resident and client who describes deconstruction as "removing the house with dignity: board by board, brick by brick."
How did Mercy Corps become involved with deconstruction in New Orleans?
Portland, Oregon is a major center for deconstruction. Since Mercy Corps is headquartered there, it was a natural connection to make.
Photo: Caitlin Carlson/Mercy Corps
When did you first go to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, and what were the circumstances?
I first came here in November 2005. At the time, I was directing Deconstruction Services for Portland's ReBuilding Center. Mercy Corps asked us to come down and meet with some local contractors and the Green Project to evaluate the possibility of using deconstruction for the disaster recovery program.
How many houses have been deconstructed so far, and how were those houses identified?
About a dozen houses directly from Mercy Corps donations; altogether, local contractors have deconstructed an additional 56 structures with our technical support. We are now dismantling the fourth of 15 houses in a pilot project that will document labor use and the value of the material salvaged. All 15 are scheduled to be deconstructed by the end of the year.
How do the homeowners of the deconstructed houses feel about the process?
This is something we want to know more about, and so we are looking into commissioning a research study to address this exact point. In the meantime, it appears to us that they are happy and relieved for the process. It puts them back in control of their property, and it gives them a chance to get back precious things as well as contribute to helping others - those working on the projects as well as those who will ultimately receive the materials.
What were the specific benefits to those homeowners?
The immediate benefits are allowing them some closure to the trauma of the disaster, retaining some of their sentimental as well as valuable personal items, and allowing them to nourish their community by contributing rebuilding materials. It also helps preserve the collective memory of the neighborhood and city by offering recognizable artifacts for new structures.
What are the biggest challenges to a larger-scale deconstruction project in New Orleans?
Just as it is for any other business, our challenge is having a workforce available to do it. People need places to live in order to work locally. People need jobs to live locally. And those are two big challenges in today's New Orleans. The majority of the deconstruction workforce does not have to be highly skilled, but they do need basic safety equipment and training along with standard construction knowledge.
We also need a market for all the materials we get. If we do 1,000 houses, that's a lot of materials generated. We need to develop material depots in addition to those that are here already. These are opportunities as well as challenges.
In addition, deconstruction is not widely accepted yet in the consumer culture here or anywhere in the United States. We are coming into a culture that certainly has kept architectural artifacts for reuse, but it will still require a shift in its cultural norms to accept used building materials for everyday needs.
What is your favorite story about deconstruction in New Orleans?
The most amazing experience happened in the first house we did. The family had lost hope that they would have anything left before we came onto the scene. It was a touching moment when one of the deconstruction workers handed the homeowner her grandfather's World War I army photo. The owner was overwhelmed; we all were.
The owner of the house also had an auto repair shop connected to the house. We were able to retrieve many of the tools that were the livelihood of this family. They thought they were not recoverable, but now they can once again use their screwdrivers and socket wrenches salvaged from the debris.
In the 7th Ward, there is a home waiting in the queue for deconstruction that was built by a founding member of the neighborhood church. The material from this house will go into the renovation of the church, to connect the future generations to their founders from early in the last century. But even when we deconstruct a still-standing house with all the personal goods removed, the owners and neighbors are amazed at the reusable materials stacking up like new on the flatbed truck.
What is the most interesting object or architectural feature you've come across during deconstruction in New Orleans?
We've found two pairs of narrow French screen doors buried under several layers of materials. They were down in the crawl space, and we didn't find them until the entire house was deconstructed and the floors and joists were taken out. The owner had put them there decades ago planning to install them, but never got around to it.
They were in excellent shape, a fine example of detailed craftsmanship in wood layering and mortise work. The balance and proportion of design and wood craftsmanship was stunning. They were perfectly square and solid with original paint only needing a light sanding and coat of paint even after having been tossed aside and then buried under a house that had floated off its foundation.
What does the near future hold for Mercy Corps' deconstruction program?
This program has the potential to launch a vocational/educational initiative to train workers who understand deconstruction and its value to not only this city, but also to the wider country.
Mercy Corps is poised to guide New Orleans to lead the nation in this work.
Over the last five years, more than 89% of resources allocated directly to programs.