Planning finalists selected to Reinvent the Crescent
By Sean Cummings on Nov 8 2006 at 11:00 AM
Mayor C. Ray Nagin and The New Orleans Building Corporation (NOBC) are pleased to announce finalists for the NOBC’s “Reinventing the Crescent” selection process. Says Executive Director Sean Cummings, “We are hiring a professional planning team to create a bold and specific development plan capable of redefining the riverfront and transforming the city’s edge into an internationally prominent waterfront.”
Planning will cover the 4.1 mile stretch of riverfront that is the subject of the City and Port’s historic Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) to be signed by Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange and Mayor Nagin on November 15.2006. The five remaining teams include some of the world’s finest talents in land planning, landscape, engineering and architecture.
Finalists include visionaries Zaha Hadid (London), Frank Gehry (Los Angeles), Daniel Libeskind (Berlin) and Bruce Mao (Toronto). They include emerging stars like TEN Arquitectos (Mexico City) and Reiser+Umemoto (New York). They include acclaimed landscape architects Gross Max (Edinburgh), Hargreaves (Cambridge), Olin Partnership (Philadelphia) and EDAW (Alexandria, VA), the world’s largest planning and landscape firm. They include leading locals in Mathes Brierre, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, Billes Architects, Trahan Architecture, Morphy Makofsky, Urban Systems and DMJM Harris among many.
From around the state and around the globe, these teams have been inspired by New Orleans’ invitation, her riverfront and the high aspirations of this opportunity.
Wrote one, “Humanity delights in and finds inspiration in waterfront settings … We are honored to assist the City in making the New Orleans Riverfront among the nation’s and the world’s most remarkable.”
Suggested another, “New Orleans is a world treasure – a crucible of culture and creativity set in a liquid landscape … Just as Chicago emerged from its flames, San Francisco from its earthquake and London from its bombing, so shall New Orleans, and what better locale for this rebirth than this majestic ribbon of fresh water and batture high ground that is the ‘crescent.�’”
Interviews will be held in late November, and it is expected that the winning team will be selected by December 15th.
Said Mayor Nagin, “With this remarkable caliber of talent, we have for the first time in 150 years the chance to reconnect our city and people to the riverfront in new and exciting ways. I am proud of New Orleans and honored by the world design community’s response.”
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