������������

The enthusiasm for What’s Out There Weekend New Orleans was evident from participant feedback: “I’ve been relentlessly exploring New Orleans for 45 years, but during the remarkable tours offered over the wonderfully organized weekend I discovered exciting new places,” said Jack Davis, Trustee Emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In fact, most of the attendees were local residents interested in learning more about their city – and more than half had never been to one of the tour sites they visited.  “I look forward to your eventual return here and thank you from the bottom of my heart for a weekend chock full of memories and inspiration,” wrote another tour participant.  Nearly all of the respondents rated the tours as “excellent.”  

The twenty-five tour sites spanned the origins of the city along the banks of the Mississippi River and the Vieux Carré to the American Sector to trade and settlement along Bayou St. John to the social experiment of Pontchartrain Park to the Lafitte Greenway and Crescent Park, two linear park projects of the 21st century. Land development and design were linked with various nationalities in the city, customs, and prevailing social conditions and progress. Guides wove together stories of maintenance efforts, political struggles, and neighborhood life with the sites’ cultural, social, and design histories.

Image

Some Weekend highlights:

Participants learned about how leaders of the Italian-American community sought to commemorate the Italian immigrant experience in New Orleans, which resulted in Piazza d’Italia, an icon of post-modernism that opened in 1978. Architect Charles Moore collaborated with the Perez firm in a design that incorporated familiar Italian elements: colonnades, a clock tower, a campanile, a Roman temple, and, in homage to the Trevi Fountain, an extensive water feature. Full realization of the intended surroundings was never accomplished, though a restoration project is currently underway and the potential dev