Evan Foster, Construction Management student, on the roof of a shed.

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Thirteen Sheds for Fire Victims: How Rebuild New Orleans Became Build for Concow

Billy Kieren and Leo Estenson, both seniors in Construction Management, met on the second Rebuild New Orleans trip in 2007, became friends, and returned to New Orleans in January 2008. By the third year, the program had grown to 117 participants and had raised almost $100,000 in donations. By the end of the spring semester, the two knew that raising even more money with more people for a fourth trip to New Orleans wasn’t feasible. The idea of putting together a project that would help people in their own community was appealing to students and faculty who had participated before.

Students and faculty members, especially construction management professors Jim O’Bannon and David Shirah, started thinking about a new kind of project to serve the community. “We wanted to help as many people as we could,” said Kieren. “The kind of projects we wanted to do, we needed a certain kind of criteria. Jim got us together with contractors and members of Rotary who had some ideas for projects, where we would supply the labor. When we looked closer, a lot of those jobs had permits and things that couldn’t be completed in winter break.”

In November, the Concow Phoenix group contacted the leaders of the project about building sheds for victims of the fire. There had been “a lot of chatter about the fires; what were we going to do,” said Estenson. “We just didn’t know if there were a way to do something significant.”

The planning group gave themselves a timeline of three weeks to do some preliminary research and fund-raising to see if the project was feasible. After three weeks of recruiting people and raising money, the group gathered to evaluate the project. “Everybody gave it a thumbs up,” said Kieren.

The plan was to build 10 8-by-10-foot sheds. Each one would cost $1,500. Choosing the size was a matter of logistics and efficiency: siding comes in four-by-eight-foot sheets, flooring also comes in four-by-eight sheets, and the dimensions made transporting prefabricated floors and walls possible.

A lot of the initial money came from contractor contacts provided by O’Bannon. “The contractors knew people at the lumber yards and other suppliers. Several of the contractors each sponsored a shed. O’Bannon has a mechanical and electrically/energy consulting company, and he and the company sponsored five. We couldn’t have done this project without them,” said Estenson.

A construction management faculty member, Mark Maybee, drew up the initial plans using a computer program. The students consulted with the contractors, who made important suggestions about efficiency.

The group did the prefab in one day at the University Farm Pavilion. They had gathered a lot of the tools they needed from their own and other CM students’ equipment. “We had prefab stations: one station made one type of wall, another cut rafters, another constructed the floor. Every student saw the construction process of every aspect of the shed. The students saw the whole process, built their shed, and then went up the hill and put it together,” said Kiernen.

One of the construction leaders was Adam Geyer, a recent construction management graduate, who got involved during the end of fall semester. “Adam was super knowledgeable,” said Kieren. “We let him take the lead on the actual prefab operation. A guy like that—you just get out of his way and let him direct and lead.”

The group did the setup the week before the actual final construction of the sheds on site at Concow. Materials arrived on Wednesday, and they laid out all of the different stations. Station leaders did a dry run, building one complete shed.

On the following Monday, the 50 volunteers fabricated the sheds. They built the requested 12 and were moving so fast that they were well into a 13th before they realized it. They completed it and went to the Phoenix group to find another fire victim in need of a shed.

While many of the volunteers were working on the prefab units, some of them went up to the campground on Concow to build a hot shower. A third crew went to all of the sites to create level pads. They leveled the ground, spread road base, and set up pressure-treated mobile home blocks.

Tuesday was mobilization day. The prefabricated pieces were loaded on trucks with trailers and transported to Concow. On Tuesday, the group was also building a tent city. They put up a 40-by-80-foot tent where their meals would be cooked and the volunteers would eat and gather. Nick Luciano, a CM student who is also a caterer, took charge of the food. He came up with a budget for meals for a whole week and set up an entire kitchen facility.

They received a lot of media attention, and the group appointed student Dan Dickson as their spokesperson. “He’s good at talking to people and good in front of the camera, and he likes it. He just did a great job,” said Estenson.

On Wednesday night, the volunteers were rained on heavily. On Thursday, it continued to rain, but the volunteers put on trash bags and rain gear and charged ahead. On Thursday night, local residents and the Concow Phoenix group prepared a meal for everyone at the Grange Hall. They had turkey raised on one of the sites and music by local musicians.

“Everyone was so thankful. At the Grange Hall, we really were able to put a face with the site and shed we were working on. They would swarm us and cover us with hugs,” said Kieren. “The people who live in Concow live there for a reason—they are self-sustaining and don’t want a lot of attention. But the outpouring of help for them meant so much. They really embraced it and were incredibly grateful for it.”

View a slide show of images here.