PechaKucha Night :: New Orleans :: Volume 3

Meditation IV, originally uploaded by francinestock.

PechaKucha Night : New Orleans : Volume 3
Thursday October 29th, 2009
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center [map]
Doors 7pm / Start 8:20pm (20:20)
FREE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Music by DJ Musa
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Volume 3 Presenters:
Francine Stock / artist
Justin Shiels / Curious Tribe
Luis Quinones / installation
Zach Youngerman / Groundwork NOLA
Stephen Collier / artist
[BREAK]
Aubrey Edwards + Alison Fensterstock
Alex Nassar / photography
Simon Dorfman / Gumbo Labs
Robin Wallis Atkinson / curator
David Gregor / architect

Times Picayune :: World Monuments Fund 2010 Watch

Phillis Wheatley School, 2300 Dumaine Street, New Orleans, LA. Charles R. Colbert, architect, 1954.

Frank Lotz Miller, photographer, source: "Idea: The Shaping Force" Uploaded by regional.modernism

The glass-and-steel Wheatley School, designed in 1954 by architect Charles Colbert, had classrooms on the second floor and a play area underneath, shielded from sun and rain. It was "progressive for a school facility at the time," the fund says. "The building was critically acclaimed and its design was exhibited internationally. It is a valuable example of regional modernism in a city most noted for its 18th and 19th century architecture."

read more....
World Monuments Fund Watch List includes two New Orleans Sites, Bruce Eggler, Times-Picayune, Friday October, 9, 2009

New Orleans magazine :: paying attention

Mollere Summer House Albert Ledner, architect, 1959. Ponchatoula, Louisiana. Uploaded by regional.modernism .

New Orleans mid-century modern architecture – typified by post-World War II design innovations, geometric forms and smooth lines – doesn’t get much notice compared to the courtyards and carriageways of the French Quarter or the Victorian showboats of the Garden District. But that’s starting to change.

read more....

Paying attention to modern architecture
Ian McNulty, New Orleans magazine, October 2009

Proposal to rehabilitate Phillis Wheatley Elementary School

DOCOMOMO. US. Louisiana

NPR :: New Orleans School Among World Endangered Sites

Wheatley listed on World Monuments Fund Watch 2010

Wheatley listed on World Monuments Fund Watch 2010, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

That's right. Take it in slowly.

WORLD :: MONUMENTS :: FUND :: WATCH.

Floating above Creole cottages and Victorian shotgun houses of the Tremé/Lafitte neighborhood of New Orleans is the glass-and-steel Phillis Wheatley Elementary School. In 1954, the architect Charles Colbert constructed an elevated cantilevered steel truss structure to provide an expansive shaded playground area, protecting the schoolchildren from the tropical climate. Progressive for a school facility at the time, the building was critically acclaimed and its design was exhibited internationally. The building is a valuable example of regional modernism in a city most noted for its 18th- and 19th-century architecture.

More than 50 years later, the elevated form proved highly effective in protecting the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School from the floods of Hurricane Katrina. Since the hurricane, the Orleans Parish School Board has shuttered the building, and decay and vandalism have taken their toll on this striking statement of modern design. Demolition of the edifice to construct a new school has been proposed, and Docomomo-Louisiana has countered this proposal by suggesting an adaptive reuse of the building as a community center. This alternative to demolition would raise public awareness of an architectural gem unique to New Orleans and encourage community building in an area still recovering from disaster.

Mystery Modern :: Lost and Found!

"Social Hall" of Methodist Church in Ponchartrain Park, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Back in June a blog reader sent me a jpg of this unmarked photo looking for help. I posted the image here and in my flickr. It took three months, but we now have a positive identification.

This is the "Social Hall" of Bethany United Methodist Church in Pontchartrain Park, 4533 Mendez Street. google street view

Bethany had eleven feet of standing water after Hurricane Katrina. It was totally gutted and renovated. The church reopened on October 22, 2006.

New Orleans Church reopens; "blessed, beautiful' after the storm

A very special thanks to Carol Reese for helping us identify this structure. Prof. Reese recently served as co-editor for the Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly Woods Landscape Manual, a joint project of Longue Vue House and Gardens and the Pontilly Disaster Collaborative.