About us
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is a public institute of higher education, accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, granting accredited four year degrees in architecture, urban planning, and construction and is responding as the lead applicant to the solicitation entitled, Universities Rebuilding America Partnerships-Community Design Program. The Charles W. Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction is a unit within the University with three program Architectural Engineering, accredited by Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineers and Technology (ABET), Construction Engineering Technology, accredited by Technology Accreditation Commission(TAC) of ABET, and Construction Management, accredited by the American Council for Construction Education all of which are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (CCANO) is an umbrella agency of approximately 33 social and health services programs located throughout the Archdiocese. The University is working in partnership with Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (CCANO). CCANO have helped feed, educate and care for the needy for 300 years.
Charlotte M. Bourgeois is currently functioning as the Project Director for Housing Development at CCANO and is responsible for this project. Her experience in historic and affordable housing is extensive as is her experience working with funding agencies. Past projects include: conversion of historic Sacred Heart School and convent into housing for the elderly funded through Louisiana (LA) tax exempt bonds and historic tax credits; Holly Park Apartments; Olympus Apartments New Orleans, a renovation of two apartment complexes for low income families, funded by LA low income housing tax credits and HOME funds; conversion of historic Holy Angel Academy in the Bywater district into independent apartments for low-income seniors funded by LA low income housing tax credits, historic tax credits and New Orleans CDBG grant; conversion of historic St. Ann Church, school and rectory in the Esplanade Ridge/Treme Historic District funded by LA low income housing tax credits, historic tax credits and New Orleans CDBG grant and HOME funds; and Conversion of Historic St. Cecilia Catholic Church and rectory in the Bywater district into a Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly Center for frail elderly funded by HUD Special Projects Grant, State of LA Capital Outlay, New Orleans CDBG grant and private donations.
James D. Goedert, Ph.D., P.E. is the project director and is the day-to-day program manager responsible for assignment and quality control of the professional work of others as described below. He is the Chairman of the Construction Systems Department at UNL. His 35 years of construction experience includes project management for a design build firm building residential and commercial construction. He has been on the faculty since 1989, serving as its chair for the last three years. Dr. Goedert brings to the team proven leadership, a high level of managerial organization, a warm friendliness, great common-sense, and the ability to motivate others.
William Holmes, R.A., NCARB, is an architect with 40 years of experience in commercial, institutional and residential building. His most recent research includes a 4000 sf precast concrete sandwich panel residential duplex. The brochure in the Narrative Attachments section, shows its design fits very comfortably in the surrounding neighborhood while using advanced, environmentally friendly, and safe construction and structural systems. Professor Holmes brings to this team a strong artistic background, a commitment to residential design that is mandated by a true fit to neighborhood and region, and a solid, practical and constructability-oriented design philosophy.
Avery Schwer, Ph.D., has over 30 years of construction experience including insulated concrete form house that he helped design for Habitat for Humanity and other low-income houses. These houses are often experimental designs including concrete structures that fit in well with the neighborhood. These experimental designs include sandwich concrete panels, and insulated concrete forms with large front porches. These innovative designs are sensitive to sustainability yet provide the comfort of traditional homes while blending into the surrounding area. Dr. Schwer’s expertise in green building materials is used to implement and improve sustainable features as identified by PATH, Energy Star, and LEED construction applications. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Nebraska, Dr. Schwer was a construction engineering manager on General Electric’s Corporate Staff.
Stuart Bernstein has fifteen years of industry experience in residential construction and management. He came to the University almost four years ago from Pulte Homes, one of the nation’s largest residential production builders. Stuart has incorporated service learning projects into his classes creating an interdisciplinary model whereby construction students manage residential renovation projects while supervising students from other service learning programs. Stuart is working with the Midwest Consortium on Service Learning, funded through a grant from the Corporation for National & Community Service, to create a new service learning based course to deal with natural disasters. This course teams construction students with sociology students, to not only help rebuild communities, but also to understand the sociological impact of disasters and the rebuilding process on the community, as well as the sociological impact on the volunteers. This course stresses the importance of community involvement in the design and reconstruction phases.
George Morcous, Ph.D., P.Eng. joined the Construction Systems Department at UNL as an Assistant Professor January 2005. He has 11 years of work and research experience in the design, construction, and maintenance of buildings and bridges. His research focuses on the use of advanced technologies such as, ground penetrating radar, and wireless sensors, in the condition assessment and health monitoring of infrastructure facilities.
Yong Cho, Ph.D., has research and teaching interest in the areas of construction automation including: construction robotics,wireless mobile robots, automated highway maintenance, indoor mobile asset position tracking, remote infrastructure health monitoring, rapid 3D workspace modeling, highway paving construction quality control, and building information modeling (BIM). He is also a web master of this New Orleans Project. See more about Dr. Cho at http://www.const.unl.edu/ykcho
Consultants
Anthony Lamanna, Ph.D., P.E., is a Professor from Tulane University that accepted a temporary position with UNL until his return to New Orleans. He is already involved in NSF-funded environmental and construction forensic damage assessments in the area. He has been involved with investigating, repair, rehabilitation, and strengthening structures using advanced materials, as well as building construction utilizing green and sustainable materials.
