jes

Now JWR, I fully expect some conceptuals of the only tower whose plans Trump has never wanted to revise as soon as you get your hands on them.

This is gonna be fantastic--from parking lot to 70-story Trump Tower. WAHOO!

I can do better than just a plain rendering.  How about a video presentation?

http://www.supportourmilitary.org/site14.php

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's fantastic; how do you keep abreast of all these projects in NO? Or are you just good at Googling?

Fed City is a fantastic idea and one which i think will not only maintain the military presence in NO (and probably increase it), but also jumpstart the riverfront development planning. I know that the City Planning Commission in NO is getting geared up to restart the whole process to try and mitigate a lot of the concerns (however founded) residents have had with the previous recommendations--especially the height requirements for the Faubourg and Bywater... I personally hope that all of the new proposals for the riverfront bring density back to the riverfront along all of Orleans Parish--the NOCCA expansion/amphitheater, redevelopment of the NSA, RiverSphere, Convention Center expansion, Entergy Powerplant BEDI site, Trust for Public Land parks, St. Thomas redevelopment, etc., not to mention all of the others waiting in the wings...

JWR--know anything about these other projects (besides those on which you've already posted?)...

Thanks again.

I was just wondering if anyone had any mockups or renderings of the Federal City concept which should now soon be a reality?

They should be happy to let capture 75% of the hotel rooms that they did not originally have anyway, and let the other quarter stay in other hotels in the city. The last thing that should happen is turn Harrah's (or Caesar's, whatever it is now) into an all-inclusive bubble where visitors are not forced to interact with the rest of the city. I heard rumors that there is a tunnel connecting the new hotel to the casino...true?

I like the idea of adding a little caribbean color to the skyline; though I wouldn't want every building to have it's color scheme, the Embassy Suites in the Warehouse district adds a nice splash to the warehouse district coming over the twin-span. Harrah's has that exotic carnival theme, anyway...

Mmmm avocadoes...

Rumor has it that this tower is now going to be a Trump Project:

http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf...12763232310.xml

I think that this is going to be golden for New Orleans, and I love the fact that yet another surface parking lot is getting developed; it is icing on the cake that Poydras St will continue to be a mixed-use corridor...

Any way to see the posted pics? For whatever reason, the pics aren't loading... Thanks in advance!

I remember when Rite Aid bought K&B.  The store in my home town of Thibodaux was once one of the busiest drug stores became empty.  People wouldn't shop there because it wasn't K&B anymore.

Does the K&B building in New Orleans still have all the cool artwork?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It absolutely does! I had a meeting in there in the spring, and it is still amazing--the sheer size of the works in that building. A lot of the Besthoff (the B in K& sculptures were given to NOMA for the Sculpture Garden in City Park--their collection is better than the National Gallery's Sculpture Garden in DC, if I do say so. Actually, that little stretch of Howard Avenue (from Lee Circle to The UPT) is turning into a little artsy district all its own, and could blow up if the Plaza Tower goes through and the UPT gets renovated, and if the Arts Council can get the last of the financing done for the ArtWorks...

JWR--excellent defense of New Orleans; it is my home town as well, and, while I think it ridiculous that we have to defend the city, I find that it is usually from the most innoccuous charges, anyway. Every place has its own assets, but I think New Orleans is unique in all the world

JWR has done such a good job on enumerating all the construction-relatedprojects, but I just wanted to rattle off a few other facts about New Orleans that probably have not been mentioned in the forum:

-New Orleans proper (not MSA, but Urbanized) is the fourth-densest city in the country according to the 2000 census

-Despite having no celebrated sprawl ordinances, New Orleans has had some of the lowest sprawl figures in the US, second only to Milwaukee and Indianapolis for the last decade

-It has the oldest-running light-rail system in the country

-It is one of the most physically integrated cities in the country (intra-census tract percentages of diversity)

-It has the best rail connections in the country, with six Class I lines running through the city limits and connecting with the Public Belt Railroad

-The actual numbers for construction-related projects actually going on in the city is something to the tune of $3.5 to $4B

-The housing costs--depending on what statistics are cited--are either the lowest or in the lowest three amongst the largest metropolitan areas in the country; a young professional can actually afford to live within walking distance of the center of the city, rather unique

-New Orleans has an average commute time of around 20 minutes (I think the exact figure is 23), but that includes the MSA

-It has 35,000 structures on the National Register of Historic Places, which is far and away the most of any US city, and 15,000 more than Washington, DC, which is the city with the second-most historic structures

-I will not go into cultural aspects of the city because those are much harder to quantify, but suffice it to say that New Orleans was the progenitor of the only indigenous American art form (Jazz), Southern Louisiana is the only region of the country with a truly unique cuisine, it has 5 Universities for a city of 1.3M, it is consistently rated as a top-5 city for restaurants, it has one of the best teaching hospitals in the entire country, it has the oldest Opera house in the US, and its visual arts scene is second to none in the US--the list goes on

Finally, I would like to point out one other aspect of New Orleans that was hinted at in some of the other posts: New Orleans has but a single Fortune-500 company (Entergy). Creative Economics is the buzzword right now, and I find it astounding and awfully reeking of racist and classist biases: New Orleans is a city of Entrepreneurs that remains so unique because it remains a city so irreverent of conventional economic logic. When Rite Aid purchased a local drug store chain, the citizens wholeheartedly effected what amounted to a boycott. Homogenizing forces simply cannot get a foothold in the silt of New Orleans, and for that, I think the rest of the country should look and learn from a city that has such an uncanny and profound sense of place, where the people who live there understand that the places we live, rather than the jobs we work, are what enrich our lives. I want to encourage people to live in a city because of the city, and not for the simple and reductivist economics. Holla!