Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006 - (Page 3)

EDITOR’S COLUMN Mausoleum on Main Street The defining question of New Orleans’ future will be whether or not we adhere to a plan that incorporates our vision of what our city ought to be, or if we are held hostage to developers who offer quick fixes to the current crisis that will change the character of our city forever. With the proposed Vantage Towers condo project in New Orleans’ Central Business District, right on the edge of the Arts District and presenting its back to historic Lafayette Street, we are confronted by one of the first tests of our resolve and of our values. The empty surface parking lots of the area bounded by Poydras and the Pontchartrain Expressway are a tabla rasa, a clean slate that does not impede us with any ethical issues involving demolition. This relatively elevated section of the CBD sorely needs residential housing to leaven its purely commercial character and to enliven it with an appropriate mixed use. As such, the Vantage Towers project potentially is a boon to the city, meeting both a demand for new residential space and adding sorely needed tax base. But the project also poses serious problems about our vision of and for New Orleans. As proposed, the 26-story tower dwarfs all the buildings for a two or three-block radius, none of which exceeds four stories in height. Adding to this disproportion, the first four stories are a concrete parking garage with no mitigating setback, landscaping, or design features to soften its deadening visual impact on pedestrians and views from the surrounding buildings. In contrast, Charleston, South Carolina,rebuilding itself after Hurricane Hugo, banned such construction, understanding that such lifeless street-level features kill city blocks — especially in historic communities. Instead, provisions must be made for retail shops or cafes at the street level, perhaps with historically appropriate overhanging galleries such as were incorporated into Place St. Charles. If New York and Chicago — where land sells for far more than in New Orleans — can require such features, so can we. Blind to History Further, the architectural design of the building itself is sterile and impersonal and fails to incorporate any architectural features which resonate with the historical character that defines New Orleans. If New Orleans does not adopt a plan and zoning requirements to define what is architecturally appropriate, then the city will fall victim to each and every individual developer’s profit-motivated project, regardless of its impact on the character of the city itself. Imagine a New Orleans with Soviet-like towers looming over our historic districts and dominating the landscape. Build enough of them and the residents of the towers themselves, rather than overlooking our charming cityscape as the sales pitch describes, will simply be staring at other similarly sterile towers with all the charm of say, Houston. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities has an immediate and vested interest in this particular case, because our Louisiana Humanities Center is housed in historic Turners’ Hall, located at the intersection of Lafayette and O’Keefe streets in the same city block as the proposed Vantage Tower. Built in 1868 as a German social hall, Turners’ Hall is generally acknowledged as one of the three or four most historically significant buildings in the CBD, dating from the same period as Gallier Hall. At the present time, Turners’ Hall is the single most attractive feature as one drives down O’Keefe from the expressway, all the way to Canal Street. Cast into Perpetual Shadow But the construction of Vantage Towers — a mere 120 feet away — will effectively obscure Turners’ Hall. As for the tenants of our historic building, we will be imprisoned in the perpetual shadow cast by the tower, staring directly at a four-story high concrete wall, and craning our necks up at the additional pile of 24 stories, devoid of a single architectural feature that connects it with Louisiana’s architectural history. Concerns about rebuilding residential areas below sea level may well compel New Orleans to build more densely in residential districts, and in the Recovery planning mid- and high-rise buildings may well have their place. But city planners elsewhere have recognized that there are better ways to construct such buildings than building them right up to the property lines and sidewalks or permitting them to dominate an entire city block. One such method is to incorporate them into a larger plot design that places the taller structure inside a courtyard ringed on the perimeter by three to five story mixed-use buildings. The effect softens the impact of the high-rise structure on the urban landscape by blending it with the lower buildings; in New Orleans the ensuing courtyards would be especially appropriate. One might hope the developer of the Vantage Towers would consider redesign of his project and that other developers prove conscientious in respecting New Orleans’ architectural history and character. But experience has taught us that our community should rely on imbedding its values in statute and zoning regulations if New Orleans is to retain its uniqueness. —Michael Sartisky, Editor in Chief Editor-in-Chief Michael Sartisky, Ph.D. Executive Editor/Art Director David Johnson Managing Editor John Kemp Assistant Editor David Smith Copy Editor Anita Yesho Assistant Designers Laura Ladendorf Toan Nguyen Circulation Manager Stephanie Mackin Contributors John Biguenet, James Lee Burke, J. Richard Gruber, Tracey E.W. Laird, Wynton Marsalis, David Rae Morris, Bruce Raeburn, Ben Sandmel, Thomas Uskali, Ronnie Virgets, Jason Wiese LEH Board of Directors R. Lewis McHenry, J.D. New Orleans, Chair Alice G. Pecoraro, Ph.D. Morgan City, Vice Chair Janet Morein Wood Lafayette, Treasurer M. Cleland Powell, III New Orleans, Secretary Judy Bajoie, New Orleans John Biguenet, New Orleans Thomas C. David, Jr., PE, PLS Pineville Philip C. Earhart, Lake Charles David M. Eppler, Pineville Neil T. Erwin, J.D., Shreveport Rosemary Upshaw Ewing Quitman Nancy Guidry, Metairie Sandra M. Gunner New Orleans Mark H. Heller, CLU, CPC New Orleans William L. Jenkins, Ph.D. Baton Rouge Kevin M. Kelly, New Orleans Sara Kracke New Orleans Charles Landry, Baton Rouge Melinda Mintz, Monroe Lawrence N. Powell, Ph.D. New Orleans Drew Ranier Lake Charles Margaret M. Ritchey Lafayette Mary Ann Sternberg Baton Rouge Renee Vanover, Berwick Liz B. White, Ed.D., Ruston Winter 2005-06/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 3

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005 Contents Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Louisiana State Museum After Katrina: “It’s time somebody woke us us up.” Missing New Orleans On Perilous Ground The Buildings of Louisiana (Architectural History by Karen Kingsley) Historic New Orleans Collection Louisiana Association of Museums Back to New Orleans Diary of a Displaced Person Jazz Notes (Music History by Bruce Raeburn) Cradle of the Stars The Terrible and the Brave Bookstand (Book Review by Thomas Uskali) Sound Advice (Music Review by Ben Sandmel) Forum (Commentary by James Lee Burke)

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2005-2006

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