As the Louisiana coast subsides and is flooded by rising sea levels, the area is becoming more vulnerable to intense floods and storms. While there is a levee surrounding the New Orleans metropolitan area, the communities outside of the levee’s protection are exposed to the elements, making it too expensive and dangerous to stay. St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes are the areas that will lose the most land and where the land is vital to the local and national economy. An environmentally and contextually sensitive infrastructure will initiate the relocation of these populations, allowing them to remain in their communities while preserving their lifestyle and quality of life.
      The town center is near the most southwestern part of the levee along Louisiana 46. The center will provide support for the intended increase in population as the area fills in with relocating residents. The center will increase the disaster resilience by providing spaces that can educate the public about climate change, facilitating movement to outside the levee with a boat and automobile transit hub, provide economic support through agriculture and fishing, and help the elderly population stay connected. The community will be able to keep its sense of place with a constant connection to the land they have come from.

   Working under the assumption that Cirque du Soleil is establishing a base in New Orleans, this project tries to create a building that embodies the spirit of the Circus of the Sun. The service spaces (locker rooms, storage, and parking) create a plinth on which the other program elements sit. A public pathway moves onto the plinth and cuts through the site. The interior circulation runs perpendicular to the public circulation, creating a cruciform organizational scheme. The site is split two ways that separate long-span vs. short-span and performers vs. staff. The multi-purpose room is suspended over the public plaza to create an outdoor performance space.

  The building acts as a billboard for Cirque du Soleil by creating a performance that is highly visible along Tchoupitoulas, a high-speed street. The cladding also becomes a literal billboard with its LED mesh screen. During the day, this screen also creates a translucent veil that disrupts the visual connection between the public and the performers to reinforce the mysticism of Cirque du Soleil.

This project was a part of the Tulane School of Architecture’s urbanBUILD project. The semester was spent designing a mixed use building in the heart of the La Salle Corridor, a run-down neighborhood. Harmony, the client, is a development firm who has built the new housing projects in the neighborhood. The first phase of the building consists of a café, a retail space, and two one-bedroom apartments. The project was tackled by working in teams who specialized in certain aspects of the building. As a part of the cladding team, I have included the façade option my team worked on. Our option included many layers mimic the many porches and balconies in the area. The brick and the screen wrap the glass and hardie-panel mass of the building. If Harmony is able to raise the funds, the project will hopefully be built to start the reinvention of the La Salle Corridor.

Project Team
Rianna Bennett, David Campanella, Victor du Peloux, Lauren Evans, Drew Hauck, Elizabeth Kovacevic, Beau Lacroix, Daniel McDonald, Dave Namaky, John Nelson, Dennis Palmadessa, Julien Remond, Kyle Ryan, Aaron Schenker, Nora Schwaller, Alexander Shporer, Matthew Skoda, Roland Solinski, Joshua Ungar, William Nemitoff, Yueqi ‘Jazzy’ Li 

Harmony Neighborhood Development
Una Anderson, Charles Cutno, Nora Hickson, and Michael Hellier

Project Team Leaders

Byron Mouton AIA, Director of URBANbuild, and Matt DeCotiis MArch, Adjunct Faculty

The New Orleans Culinary Institute site was located in the midst of the historic OC Haley Boulevard. The program given for this site was large, looming over the smaller buildings around it. To solve the problems of this site issue, the building was split into three different masses. The plinth is where the building meets the ground. It borders the edge of the site to emphasize its commercial and public qualities. The restaurant and other public spaces are housed here. The top of the plinth acts as a second ground floor, with a green roof and gardens on it. The school component rests on top of the plinth and houses all of the classrooms and teaching kitchens. The translucent and transparent facade panels create a lighter feeling than the spaces below. The plan is rotated on these upper levels to incorporate large covered outdoor spaces. The third element is the circulation. It is a wedge shape that splices through the two other masses. It connects them and connects the gardens to the city through views.

The French Quarter is one of the most historical neighborhoods in the country. One of the most telling characteristics is the incorporation of courtyards in this dense urban space. In this design, for a public library, the courtyard was designed as a large open space with spaces cantilevered into it. This allows for views of the seldom seen spaces of the French Quarter. The main part of the building holds the stacks, public meeting space, and staff offices. The projecting rooms are reserved for more social spaces such as the reading rooms, computer lab and kids' area. Cantilevering these 'special' spaces into the courtyard increases the interaction of people and this important, dominant green space. The projecting spaces are also able to be opened, creating cross ventilation and an outdoor experience that isn't found in many public buildings. The courtyard itself has shifted planes that allow for seating. There is also an incorporated reflecting pool and water feature that will help retain water during downpours. Around the courtyard and the facades, the building uses a system of glazing and perforated metal panels. These panels break up the facade to be more contextual. There are also voids in the facades that have been pushed back, creating balconies that are a common feature in the French Quarter.