New Orleans Looks To Revive Riverfront

The most notable in the field of architecture -- from Rem Koolhaas to Frank Gehry to Rafael Viñoly to Norman Foster -- have been called upon by city leaders in New Orleans to propose designs for the city's riverfront at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The city is hoping that a redeveloped riverfront will be an international attraction and provide the city with an iconic tourist spot.

"What might the reinvention involve? Cruise ship terminals, hotels, parking garages, museums, maybe an amphitheater or an opera house or a planetarium, according to the terms under which the port and city agreed to open the area up for redevelopment. Perhaps the plan's highest aspiration is to allow for a riverfront park or green space that would facilitate pedestrian access to the waterway that was responsible for New Orleans' birth and growth, but that for much of the city's history has been almost invisible to many residents."

"City leaders have talked about such goals, about "reclaiming the riverfront," since at least the 1970s, and the process already has resulted in French Quarter and Central Business District attractions such as the Moonwalk, Woldenberg Riverfront Park, the Aquarium of the Americas and the Riverwalk shopping mall."