Remembering the Past but Building for the Future
16 May, 2011

Landry High School
Location: New Orleans, LA
Architect/Specifier: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
HDC Product Used: Metal Ceilings, Screen/Baffles, Sun Louvers
HDC Ceilings Location: Thornton, CO
Completion Date: August 2010

The Project
Already suffering from the abuse of time and neglect, Landry High School was nearly destroyed after Hurricane Katrina swept through the area. After many believed the school would not reopen, Landry High School was chosen by The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Louisiana Recovery Authority and Recovery School District to receive funding and grants to rebuild the school.

The Challenge
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, the architectural team, was challenged with designing a sustainable new high school that retained the old school's basic layout, with modern upgrades.

The Solution
To help achieve this goal, the architects chose two unique ceiling applications from Hunter Douglas Contract. Hook-On metal ceilings and metal tube-shaped baffle ceiling systems enhance the aesthetics of the facility, encourage learning with a "didactically" designed, two-level approach to the interior, and provide sustainable properties at the ceiling. The ceiling and exterior wall screening applications, along with other sustainable features of the school, have put the facility on track to receive LEED Silver Certification.

The architectural team used 33,000 square feet of Hunter Douglas' Hook-On metal plank ceilings in the high school’s public areas, corridors and cafeteria. The openness of the perforated hook-on plank system was chosen, designed and engineered to create two environments: an everyday living space for students (the space below the ceiling) and a visible separately existing space above the ceiling, the "plenum," from which building services such as HVAC, sprinklers, and lighting are housed.

The school also features a total of 37,000 square feet of Tubrise metal ceiling baffles, roll-formed, tube-shaped panels that can function as interior ceiling plenum covers (baffles) or as an exterior sun louver or screening system to provide solar control.

The 13,000 square feet of Tubrise in the gymnasium interior provides the ceiling with a plenum mask. In this application, the product also serves as passive skylights, creating and allowing lighting conditions that the product is normally intended to control. The 24,000 square feet of exterior louvers on the high schools exterior provides solar control, while allowing outward visibility and free circulation of air.

"The Hunter Douglas Contract ceiling products chosen, and the applications for each make this project unique," said Ron Rice, General Manager for Hunter Douglas Ceilings' Atlanta, GA-based Luxalon Division. "Along with the didactic effects of the Hook-On metal ceilings, the external and internal baffle/louvers are used to control solar heat from the exterior of the building and enhance solar lighting conditions in the interior. These applications contribute to the school’s aesthetically pleasing design."