Since my dad’s side of the family is from New Orleans, I visit regularly. This time it was for a wedding, and the whole family made it out to this very appropriate locale for such good times. Of course, whenever I go anywhere I also try to take in as much of the visual culture as possible. From where I was staying, near Canal Street, the main drag that marks the southwestern border of the French Quarter, you can catch a streetcar out to City Park, which is a big, beautiful stretch of land that includes the New Orleans Museum of Art. The line ends right at Esplanade, the street heading into the park and along a magnificent parkway. There is a great splendor to heading down this road with the palatial museum at its terminus. It is a great way to see the city, and its neighborhoods, but is also a leisurely journey, so make time for it.

Depending on where you’re staying, it is fairly easy to get around the city. From my hotel I walked through the touristy areas, into the governmental and financial districts and into the warehouse district, where the Contemporary Arts Center, along with a fair number of galleries are located.

I am always amazed by the architecture of New Orleans and this walk highlights it best. The French Quarter never fails to amaze and always makes me think of the Edouard Manet’s group portrait on the terrace, The Balcony. When you reach Canal Street all the streets change name - Decatur becomes Magazine (named for the munitions once stored there) and Chartres Street (pronounced “charter street”) becomes Camp. Although it’s no longer called “the American sector” Canal used to be the border between that and the old city colonized by the French and Spanish, hence the name changes. Canal is lined with high-rise hotels and large stores, in the center are the streetcar tracks. It’s like many major cities’ large thoroughfares and the mixture of old lampposts, palm trees and new buildings is pleasant. Continuing along Magazine Street are more older buildings, not as iconic as those in the French Quarter, but still made with a Southern charm and with gritty patinas that allow your mind to wander to some idea of the past. These give way to tall brutal skyscrapers. Including a severe Federal building that looks as much like a movie about a sci-fi totalitarian future as the other buildings make you think of film noirs. This is the sort of stuff that is so interesting. All these different styles, different eras, all on top of each other, making for a mess that makes sense and works out perfectly.

As far as damage from the Hurricane, it is hard to tell these days, especially depending on the areas you go. The downtown and French Quarter were always on higher ground, so they suffered relatively little damage to begin with. Tourism seems to have picked back up quite well, people were out and about, music was issuing from every club and on nearly ever corner someone was performing. Comparing other cities, with their stores shuttering daily due the global economic loss of confidence, New Orleans is thriving.

In areas like the lower 9^th ward, that neighborhood erased by the failed levee, after it was crippled by poverty, it’s a different story. Although this time I didn’t make it out, back in December 2008, during the Prospect.1 Biennial, signs of rebuilding were noticeable. Currently on view at the Contemporary Arts Center was an exhibition of the international architectural initiative spearheaded by Brad Pitt, called “Make it Right.” Firms as local as New Orleans, and as far off as Asia have submitted designs that are in the process of being built. According the exhibition text for “Make it Right: From Concept to Community” fourteen families are now living in the project site with nineteen more houses on the way and forty-nine more families in the process of homeownership. I was proud to learn the firm my cousin works for, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, has made two so far. I also learned the firm designed the stunning pod/structure that sat within the Hefler Warehouse, a battle-worn structure with character. The project exemplifies what I was talking about in terms of how incongruent eras, materials and forms, when combined, give the city’s space a unique personality.

Riding in the City Park streetcar from the museum, I saw only the occasional empty house, dilapidated. Only one bore the telltale brown line left by floodwaters. But in the city’s humid moldy clime, everything is always a little rotten and a little blossoming.

--Erik Wenzel

(Images courtesy of Erik Wenzel)