© Jeff Johnston

The architecture firm studioWTA renovated this existing space in an historic building into an art gallery. The primary concern in the design was to highlight historic elements, while providing a clean, crisp surface on which to display artwork.

Architect: studioWTA
Location: 432 and 434 Julia Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Project Area: 1,800 sqf
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Jeff Johnston

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Thursday, May 5th the Ogden Museum of Southern Art will host the AIA New Orleans Member Preview Event for two architecture exhibitions, Elemental and New Orleans Architecture Now. Both exhibitions will open to the public on Saturday, May 7, and remain on display through Friday, May 13 during the 2011 AIA National Convention. To register and for more details of the event can be found here.

Elemental: This exhibition aims to illustrate how digital fabrication tools are indeed revolutionizing the way we think, fabricate and distribute 3D designs, and how it all together affects the practices of designers and architects. On focus in the exhibition is how digital fabrication goes from the digital world to physical reality at multiple scales. Participants will include Greg Lynn, Elena Manferdini, IwamotoScott and Florencia Pita.

New Orleans Architecture Now: This exhibition will present the work of 35 different local architects and firms in the New Orleans region. Featuring 20 physical models, and arranged by neighborhood and type, a diverse selection of projects will be presented that reflect the great variety of work, from urban farm to master planning, that is happening in New Orleans now.

Our goal is straightforward: to achieve a dramatic reduction in the climate-change-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the Building Sector by changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed.
Architecture 2030

The research from Architecture 2030 and the EIA has shown both the building industry and general public some staggering numbers; building operations for residential, commercial and industrial structures use 77% of ALL the electricity produced in the USA, not to mention 49% of energy consumption.

Just some additional numbers to take into consideration: transportation accounted for 33.5% of CO2 emissions and the industry field within the USA 19.6%.  Even more of a concern is the building sector’s 46.9% reading.

Architecture 2030 has changed the way we look at buildings. Recognizing that the building sector is BOTH the problem and the solution Design By Many has media partnered with ArchDaily to issue the following Challenge: Design a Passive House for New Orleans, sponsored by HP.

Adhering to the Passive House Standard, the challenge is focusing on a single-family housing design solution for communities in New Orleans.  Entries must provide a well balanced concept of sustainability including minimal impact on the local environment, affordable to heat and cool, and affordable to build and purchase.

Open to both students and professionals, Challenge: Design a Passive House for New Orleans is combining a lot of key components: The Passive House Standard, 2030 Challenge which has influenced the Better Buildings Initiative issued by President Obama, and the 2011 AIA Convention New Orleans, to name a few.

Prizes include an HP Designjet T2300 PostScript eMFP (nearly $10,000 value), a feature on DesignReform on the first day of the AIA National Convention in New Orleans (May 12th), AND the winner will also receive a feature on ArchDaily.

We are looking forward to seeing your design solutions!

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Group 4_Poster

Architects’ Week is a longstanding tradition of the Tulane School of Architecture as a weeklong, design and build, group project.  It is a unique occasion for students to work not only with a proven designer, but also with fellow students. The exact form that it takes varies from year to year. In 2010, A-Week groups created information kiosks for New Orleans. The year before was an exploration in rethinking the bench. This year the project brief was a bit different. The project brief, images and descriptions of each student project and the winning design after the break.
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© Timothy Hursley

This new high school for the Louisiana Department of Education Recovery School District was part of a post-Katrina “quick start” construction program to accelerate the replacement of five damaged schools within an extremely aggressive timeline (6 months for design and 20 months for construction) while a new comprehensive masterplan for the New Orleans school system was underway.

L.B. Landry High School occupies an important place in the city’s history – part of the reason for its accelerated rebuilding. The school was founded in 1938 as the first public high school on the west bank of the city that African-American residents could attend and only the second black high school established in Orleans Parish.

Follow the break for more photographs and drawing of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple’s design for the L.B. Landry High School.

Architects: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Contractor: Satterfield & Pontikes Construction Group, LLC
Architect of Record: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Associate Architect for Programming: SHW Group
Structural/Civil Engineers: Schrenk & Peterson Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Geotechnical Engineers: Eustis Engineering Company
MEP Engineers: Moses Engineers
Landscape Architects: Daly Sublette Landscape Architects, Inc.
Food Service Consultant: Futch Design Associates
Acoustical/Audio-Visual: Gracenote Consulting
Estimator: Pro-Serv Estimating
Client: Louisiana Recovery School District
Project Area: 236,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Timothy Hursley

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© Timothy Hurlsey

Designed to vertically re-imagine the typically horizontal condition of New Orleans’ dense French Quarter blocks, the project is organized to create a communal amenity floor at the 9th level, reinterpreting the courtyard housing typology for urban, high-rise living. At this raised “courtyard” level, shuttle elevators transfer from garage to tower in order to instigate opportunities for residents to cross paths with one another in a shared, communal space as opposed to the typical, introverted experience found in most high-rise residential developments.

More photographs, drawings, and description of this 21 story, 462,000 square foot mixed-use residential project including ground floor retail and 250 residential apartments above a 500-car garage following the break.

Architect: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Mechanical Engineer: Mechanical Construction Co
Structural Engineer: Morphy Makofsky Inc
Electrical Engineer: Canzoneri & Associates
Civil Engineer: Morphy Makofsky Inc
Geotechnical Engineer: Eustis Engineering
MEP Engineer: Moses Engineers (Contract Administration Only)
Contractor: Gibbs Construction Company
Client: Brian Gibbs Development, LLC
Project Area: 462,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photography: Timothy Hurlsey

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Courtesy of Langevin, Cummings and Cuéllar

Jared Langevin shared with us his project Cross Cultivation. The project, designed along with Joshua Cummings and Gabriel Cuéllar was awarded 2nd place in the 2010 USGBC New York Natural Talent Design Competition (Emerging Professionals category). More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »

Duplex house for Make It Right / Atelier Hitoshi Abe

We have told you in the past about Brad Pitt´s Make It Right Foundation. They have been working with a group of international architects to redevelop the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina. The name of the foundation addresses the desire of Pitt, architecture enthusiast, to design these houses the best way and not just as a temporary solution, in a process that also included working not only with these renowned firms, but also very close with the community, with a focus on sustainable development.

At Make it Right, they submitted their idea to the Pepsi Refresh Project. The most voted idea will receive $250,000. If Make It Right would receive this grant, the money will go towards continuing to help build affordable, sustainable, high-designed and storm resistant homes for families in the Lower Ninth Ward. So click here to vote for their idea and help them carry out this great project!

© Steve Dumez

Architects: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Location: New Orleans, LA, USA
Consultants: Canal Construction of Louisiana LLC – General Contractor
Client: U.S. Biennial, Inc.
Project Size: 300 sf
Completion Date: 2008
Photography: Will Crocker Photography, Steve Dumez read more »

© Will Crocker

Architects: buildingstudio
Location: New Orleans, LA, USA
Design Team: Coleman Coker, David Dieckhoff, Varuni Edussuriya, Tom Holloman, Jonathan Tate
Client: Neighborhood Housing Services
General Contractor: Evolution Builders
Project Area: 960 sq ft
Budget: US $116,000
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Will Crocker & Undine Prohl

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DesCours is a free, public, week-long architecture and art event now in its fourth year, held the second week of December in New Orleans. This event invites internationally renowned architects and artists to create 14 architecture installations within ‘hidden’ locations in the heart of New Orleans, including private courtyards, rooftops, abandoned buildings and walkways, all locations normally unseen, inaccessible or unused by the public.

AIA New Orleans is presenting the event in partnership with the Downtown Development District (DDD), the City of New Orleans, the Louisiana Architecture Foundation and numerous private businesses, organizations, and individuals. AIA New Orleans is proud to present this event free of charge and open to the public.

You can find more information and download the request for proposals details in the official website.

William McDonough + Partners duplex home for Make It Right

Brad Pitt´s Make It Right Foundation has been working with a group of international architects to redevelop the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina. The name of the foundation addresses the desire of Pitt, architecture enthusiast, to design these houses the best way and not just as a temporary solution, in a process that also included working not only with these renowned firms, but also very close with the community, with a focus on sustainable development.

The designs are referential, and each client (as the houses aren´t “free”, yet they use existing finance ways and low interest loans) can pick a design, which is then adjusted by local firm John C. Williams Architects to suite the client´s needs.

A first phase included single family homes, designed by practices such as Kieran Timberlake, Shigeru Ban, Morphosis, MVRDV and Trahan Architects. As of now 8 houses have been built, and more than 10 houses are already on construction or in the permit process.

Make It Right has recently unveiled a second phase with 14 duplex homes to accommodate up to 2 families, which include a site-specific sustainable strategy and flexible plans for future family growth. But also, the practices were required to meet integration with the street and the use of landscaping as a design and energy element.

The result?  The 14 duplex homes after the break:
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The Tulane City Center houses the Tulane University School of Architecture’s urban research and outreach programs. So far this year, the students at the Tulane School of Architecture have built three projects, a Green Pavillion (a sustainable exhibition on rainwater re-use, a Farmer’s Market in Hollygrove, and a LEED certified (soon to be) house in Central City. All of these projects are located in New Orleans.

You can find more on the Tulane City Center here. Images and description of the three projects, after the break. read more »

It’s no mystery that you don´t need to graduate from architecture school at university to become an architect – just ask Le Corbusier, Mies or Frank Lloyd Wright.

Clearly Brad Pitt didn´t go to school either, but trust me that I wouldn´t be too surprised to see him receiving an architect award or the honorary title from a renowned US university. Who´s more “architect”? The one that went to school and never built, o the one who didn´t went to school and builds?

Despite the fact that he states that “whilst acting is my career, architecture is my passion”,  not only he has more work that most of the architects i know.  As if announcing a 800 room sustainable hotel in Dubai wasn´t enough, he spent his visit to Washington DC meeting senators and congressmen -such as Nancy Pelosi, as pictured above-  to gather support for this project/foundation Make It Right, aiming to develop housing prototypes for the reconstruction of New Orleans.

This project works with practices such as MVRDV, Shigeru Ban and Morphosis, who developed 13 prototypes for the first stage to consolidate a 150-house neighborhood, having 90 financed so far thanks to donations to his foundation.

On previous news about Brad Pitt and his passion for architecture, several people commented that this was just an actor´s caprice… I would take this more seriously.  The fact of studying at an architecture school or not  seems very irrelevant to me, compared to the smart way on using his fame and exposition to develop and finance architectural projects, such as his house, a multi million dollar hotel, restaurants and interiors with Frank Ghery or a foundation to rebuild New Orleans, getting goverment´s attention and raising dozens of millions of dollars, something that lots of architects would really like to.

I´ve heard of very succesful architects coming from totallly unrelated backgrounds, such as finances… it seems that Hollywood and architecture don´t work bad either.

But beyond the anecdotal aspect, I think that what´s remarkable on this is how an “outsider” to the architecture world is able to give us a good teaching on how to origin, develop and finance an interesting project such as MIR making a good use of his available resources, such as public image and influence on this case.