Resilient Building and Design

Les Maisons de Bayou Lafourche

In May 2018, GCHP was competitively awarded a Community Development Block Grant-National Disaster Resilience (CDBG-NDR) funds from the Louisiana Office of Community Development and the Louisiana Housing Corporation to develop a resilient community in the northern part of Lafourche Parish where future flood risk is expected to remain low.

GCHP developed the community Les Maisons de Bayou Lafourche with sustainable design and construction features including, elevated concrete foundations; engineered framing with metal hurricane anchors and bolds, impact rated doors and windows; and standing seam metal roofs. These disaster-tested measures mitigate the risk of property damage.

Although flooding was not an issue at the property for Hurricane Ida, the development mitigates the potential for water damage with a landscape designed to capture water from a 25-year flood event. The buildings are also elevated three feet above Base Flood Elevation. If there is water intrusion, paperless drywall, tile floors, foam insulation and elevated mechanical equipment make it easier—and cheaper—to recover from a flood. All these measures are intended to get residents back into their homes as quickly as possible after a severe weather event.

Les Maisons de Bayou Lafourche was the first FORTIFIED Gold Multifamily designated community in the country. On August 29, 2021, construction on Les Maisons de Bayou Lafourche was 90% complete when Hurricane Ida came onshore in Louisiana. As residents and businesses surveyed the extensive damage to their homes and businesses, it was clear that resilient features put in place by GCHP had effectively spared the community from anything other than a few minor damages.