New Maps!!!
 

Google Maps/Earth finally, after years, got new shots of New Orleans. The old maps were right after Katrina and the city looked shoddy with blue roofs and no vegetation. The new maps makes the city look beautiful with plenty of green and new construction.

Two things to note:
Look at the new Lake Borne Barrier under construction in New Orleans East.
Look at the new Great Lawn in City Park opposite City Park Ave. near the museum.

http://maps.google.com/maps

this looks like around last summer or early fall by the looks of my house which by the way is incredibly clear. I could get a view like I was sitting on the lawn of my neighbor across the street.

These maps look like they could have been taken last month judging from street construction. I wonder is this related to the oil spill (maybe they needed a quick aerial), because the quality of those are horrible compared to what they had before. Either way, at least it's an updated map. The www.bing.com/maps imagery looks much better and clearer even if it is a year or two old IMO.

Those satellite photos are from mid-March 2010 according to Google Earth...can see I was home when they snapped those images...:cool:

I don't know...the plants in my garden that died with the freeze still look pretty good in these pictures.

^Check out Google Earth, the actual program. In the lower left corner it says Imagery Date: Mar 23, 2010...

well...i also noticed a fema trailer in front of one of my neoghbor's house which has not been there for some time...or the neighbor across the street with a car in their driveway they no longer own.

maybe some of these images are mixed & matched from different time periods...but the ones from my street are not from march 2010.

The new maps are interesting. There is progress and loss in the same picture. You can see the new Twin Span, surge barrier, other levee work, cancer center, great lawn, etc. You can also see what's been lost. Lots of concrete slabs in St. Bernard and New Orleans East, empty lots in Lakeview and Gentilly, and huge open spaces in the Lower 9th Ward. Quite a contrast.

New-look Canal Place movie theater to get on with the show this week

http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf...movie_the.html

http://media.nola.com/entertainment_...363b_large.jpg

One of the latest developments in Gentilly
 

Unfortunately, there has been a dearth of development in Gentilly since the storm, the following is some good news. Dillard University has recently opened one of two new buildings, which are to come online this year. Here are some pics of the professional schools building, and after the pics I've pasted a press release from Woodward Design+Build explaining the building's LEED Gold certification.

I like the departure for the neo-classical style of the campus's historic buildings, while there is still obvious cohesion. And the classroom and flexible spaces look great and functional. However, I think that I loathe the atrium a little... something about it gives me late 80s/early 90s... almost Esplanade Mall-esque. Hmm...

Check it out:

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb0.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb1.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb2.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb3.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb4.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb5.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb6.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb7.jpg

http://www.woodwarddesignbuild.com/p...illardpsb8.jpg


*Woodward Delivers LEED Gold*

"While Dillard University will continue to provide a brighter future for its students, Woodward Design+Build provided the university with a new standard for higher learning facilities.

The new Professional Schools Building sets itself apart from the rest with its impressive state-of-the-art environmental design. This project - constructed to LEED Gold green building standards and currently undergoing certification - is a first for any university in Louisiana.

Home to the school’s chemistry labs and other specialized instruction areas, the 130,000-square-foot building presented unique challenges. By drawing on our extensive experience serving our education and government clients, the Woodward team delivered a building that is now getting a lot of attention on campus.

“Thank you for your leadership in making this building the jewel in the crown at Dillard,” Walter Strong, the university’s executive vice president, wrote to us recently.

High performance glass, efficient lighting and low-flow plumbing fixtures are just the start. Landscaping includes native prairie grasses that require little maintenance, while bioswales and manmade wetlands handle storm water runoff. The Woodward team even helped develop a unique mechanical feature to recycle energy from the air collected by chemistry lab exhaust hoods.

It’s a building that corresponds with Dillard’s historic campus while also representing the university’s greener future as a community of learning for generations to come."

The renovation of Dinwiddie at Tulane will be LEED Silver... not as good as Gold, but still pretty damn good for a renovation of a 100-year-old building, and for a project in Louisiana.

Dome Re-skin update. About 1/2 done.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1599/domereskin.jpg

Audubon Building’s new owner plans boutique hotel
 

A former condo project along the Canal Street corridor is being converted into what the developer calls an “upscale boutique” hotel. The eight-story structure at the corner of Burgundy Street next to the Ritz Carlton will become the 180-room Hotel Indigo.

http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/bl...outique-hotel/

More great news from that end of Canal st. This is a few blocks down from the Bioinnovation Center.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/10/931poydras.png

Seen here just left of the Ritz.

http://www.hotelsoftherichandfamous....ns-default.jpg

Thank god. I am SO sick of those plastic banners they have covering up the denuded street-level facade.

According to that article, the building sold for $5.5 million, but received somewhere between $3 and $5 million in subsidy. In other words, this guy may have just picked up an 8-story building for only $500,000.

Yeah great investment imo. Good location for an upscale hotel, should do well next to the ritz, few blocks from bourbon. Didn't realize that building was built in 1909, will be glad to see it renovated.

Yeah, and I think that I read that it appraised or that they were originally were asking for 7+ million? That was a good deal, and on Canal!

However, the 1000 block need much improvement (particularly, the old Woolworth) and different retail. Nevertheless, I'm encouraged, because once this project is complete and the Saenger Theatre reopened, there will be a much better Canal on the downriver side through to the Bioinnovation Center--excluding the 1000 block and that rental car place between 1201 Canal and the Bio center. Is that still a rental car facility or has it become something else? I cannot recall from my last visit home.