Honorable MentionSubmitted by:
BGO Architects
Don Sopranzi & Zephyr Hudgins
4245 N. Central Expressway, Suite 300
Dallas TX 75205
P: 214-520-8878
email: zhudgins@bgoarchitects.comLocation of application: mixed use--apartments, retail, restaurant, hotel & offices Baronne & Gravier project New Orleans LA
The renaissance of New Orleans is slowly coming to fruition. Locals are returning to demand reasonable living conditions in the more hurricane resistant areas of the city. Downtown was mostly resilient to the devastation in the wake of Katrina which has sparked a reconstruction effort that will attempt to recreate the city center through adaptive reuse as a place for roaming pedestrians and bustling local commerce. The first priority is to provide adequate housing. We and our clients are proposing to rehabilitate two neighboring buildings at the intersection of Baronne and Gravier Streets just two blocks from Canal Street and the French Quarter with spectacular views of the Mississippi River and the surrounding city. One building is a 10 story historical jewel from the early 1900s whose character will be preserved and connected via a sky bridge to a dated 1960's 29 story glazed brick office building. Both buildings will be converted to a mixed use of apartments and retail. The taller, newer building requires an extreme facelift to create an eloquent juxtaposition from the old to the new; a symbolic gesture of the city's past and future that has created a challenging design exercise on how to approach its new envelope.
We have selected a densely perforated metal panel suspended between a steel frame to weave into the elements of the old façade providing the multiple functions of esthetics and utility. Our design adds punctured balconies for the apartment units which will be screened either completely, partially, or mechanically by the perforated metal panels. The screens will provide an element of shade while also utilizing the cooling gulf winds that gust through the urban canyons of downtown but still protecting the units from hurricane-flung projectiles in cases of emergency. The metal screens will also provide privacy from the outside without affecting the view from the inside and at night can be lit with dramatic yet eloquent illumination effects by using a combination of back and front lighting with different colors and washes. The goal is to create a beacon that will integrate into the New Orleans skyline without instigating a Las Vegas style edifice race of "look at me!" architecture by extending the illuminated cantilevered perforated panels up the corner of the building at the Baronne and Gravier intersection. Although still in conceptual design phases, we also propose to use perforated metal to enclose the adjoining sky bridge that will provide a visual connection between the old building and the new façade of its neighbor.
Milwaukee, WI 53214 IPERF.org
