This project to regenerate a New Orleans elementary school ruined by flooding from Hurricane Katrina responds directly to context while generating appropriate spatial and programmatic relationships within itself. The larger, more public spaces — auditorium, library, gymnasium, cafeteria — align themselves in a bar along the more commercial Harrison Avenue side of the site, whereas the classrooms scale themselves to the suburban context around a courtyard bounded on the north end by the bar. The site beneath the school is bermed to protect the buildings against future flooding, to lock the project into the levee, and to better define and protect the outdoor areas so crucial to elementary-school students. Hurricane debris from around the city could supply part or all of the huge volume of fill necessary for the berming. Each grade level consists of three classrooms, each with an adjacent shaded exterior space, arranged in pinwheel fashion around a central activity space. This implies a hierarchy of shared spaces: individual classroom; cluster of three classrooms; main classroom courtyard. The path connecting the Argonne Street entrance to the levee acts as the major circulation artery for the school, taking the user from the entrance through a tunnel before releasing him once more to the open sky and ground. In particular, the path leading from the cafeteria along the pine planting to the playground by the levee slopes down slightly — maximizing children's post-lunchtime exhilaration as they run to play. Small ponds — miniature wetlands — provide learning opportunities for children and adults alike, and also refer to the Lakeview area's primeval swamp condition, only altered about a century ago. Tulane University School of Architecture Instructor: John Klingman Spring 2006