[ardecila]

Maybe we're in some disagreement here... there are many ugly buildings in this city, but that isn't one of them. It has the right scale for Tulane Avenue and a sensible design that uses some of the bright colors that New Orleanians put on their shotgun doubles, in a neighborhood full of such houses. No, if you want to see ugly, look at any building in the medical district built after 1950. Any of Tulane's buildings, the VA hospital, University Hospital, etc. You'd think that with the great modern architecture that Tulane has built uptown, they could do the same downtown, but apparently not.

In terms of design standards, we're lightyears behind major cities like Chicago and New York, but I'm okay with that because spectacular architecture isn't necessarily a requirement for economic vitality. It would be nice, of course, but it isn't essential like in NYC or Chicago where the architecture itself is a tourist attraction. I do, however, expect certain things out of buildings regardless of what style they are built in - they need to have sensible responses to the hot, rainy weather, hurricane protection, an active street level, and come up to the sidewalk unless absolutely necessary. They also need to incorporate trash areas and loading docks away from the street.

Luckily, all the major projects going up right now DO have good designs (LCRC, 930 Poydras, State Building, Tulane Ave stuff) and the proposals also have decent architecture (Tracage, Vantage). Trump has okay design, although it's not gonna win any awards, and even the replacement designs for the projects seem to be pretty good. I'm not really a fan of the Make It Right houses - they look like Picasso messed with traditional shotgun houses and then set them on stilts. If they want to do modern, then don't compromise it by trying to bring in too much stuff from traditional styles.