For more than a hundred years, the two-block Bell School campus anchored New Orleans’ Treméneighborhood as a place for education, music training and cultural development. Abandoned since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, these six extraordinary buildings will be given new life in a $40 million two-phase project that will restore not only the bricks and mortar but also the Bell School’s historic role as a community center.
The first phase will transform the two largest buildings into 73 units of affordable live/work housing units for low- to moderate-income artists, cultural workers and their families. It will also create a 45,000-square-foot green space for everything from community recreation, athletic practice and marching band rehearsals to open air markets for art and fresh food. The other four structures will be renovated in the second phase.
Artspace’s co-developer, nonprofit Providence Community Housing, has built more than a thousand affordable housing units in New Orleans since Katrina. Other supporters include both the City and the Housing Authority of New Orleans and, in the private sector, the New Orleans African American Museum, Urban League of Greater New Orleans and New Orleans Cultural Trust. Artspace is also working with many community leaders, grassroots organizations and artists to understand and advance their visions for Tremé.
Estimated Project Cost
$40 million
Development Partner
Providence Community Housing
