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2003 ASLA Annual Meeting & EXPO PROFESSIONAL TOURS |
| T01 Level of Walking: Moderate Travel from the high point in the city at the convention center toward the former swamp and marshlands of Eastern New Orleans. This landscape is reminiscent of what much of New Orleans was like prior to draining the wetlands to make settlement possible. Much of the landscape of New Orleans East was planned by Ian McHarg to be a Lake Pontchartrain New Town, but not much materialized; several abandoned I-10 interchanges that lead to nowhere still exist. The area has been acquired by the federal government and is now dedicated as a wildlife refuge. As the land becomes lower and wetter, the highway approaches the twin bridges that cross Lake Pontchartrain at the Chef Menteur Pass area. Entering the North Shore clothed in its luxuriant Piney Woods, this higher ground was created 2,000 years ago as the Pleistocene Terrace. Crossing the nearby Mississippi State Line after an hour-long drive through pine forests, the bus will arrive at the Crosby Arboretum. Experience the Piney Woods landscape of coastal Mississippi at the award-winning Crosby Arboretum. Enjoy this guided tour through the Arboretum’s Savanna, Woodland, and Aquatic exhibits, and discover the landscape design intent behind the restored native plant communities and discover the management techniques. The Arboretum features the architectural work of E. Fay Jones, noted AIA Gold Medal recipient and designer of the Honor Award-winning Pinecote Pavilion, plus landscape architect Edward L. Blake, Jr., ASLA, who was involved in the early management plan for the Arboretum. The Crosby Arboretum Master Plan, conceived by Andropogon Associates, et al., received an ASLA Honor Award in 1991. Pinecote, the 104-acre public interpretive center of the Crosby Arboretum, was the recipient of the ASLA Centennial Medallion. Interested participants see education session B2 Ecological Infrastructure: A Primer for Integrated Wastewater Management. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Reclamation and Restoration; Rural Landscape Design; and Context Sensitive Design. $40 per person. Fee includes transportation, admission fees, morning break, and handout materials. Led by Robert F. Brzuszek, landscape architect and site director for the Crosby Arboretum. T02 - Sold Out Level of Walking: Moderate Travel less than one hour west of New Orleans to an area rich in antebellum plantations and gardens – the Mississippi River Road in St. Charles and St. James Parishes. Agriculture and slave labor made the plantation owners very wealthy. They spent summers here during the planting season and spent the winter seasons in their elegant town houses in the Vieux Carre, where they enjoyed dancing, friends, and the opera in the “city that care forgot.” Several plantations typical of the style from the 1700s-1800s will be visited. Each one has its own charm and distinction. Destrehan Plantation, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1787 and is the oldest documented plantation house left intact along the lower Mississippi River. It appears in the Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt movie, Interview with the Vampire. The San Francisco Plantation House is a galleried house built in 1856 in the old Creole open suite style and is a National Historic Landmark. Houmas House Plantation and Gardens, a Greek revival mansion and grounds, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was the site for filming the Bette Davis movie Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Participants will enjoy a traditional cuisine luncheon of jambalaya, gumbo, po-boys, and seafood at the Cabin Restaurant in Burnside, Louisiana. It is set in a complex similar to plantation slave quarters and built from cypress wood found in the area—a popular technique for South Louisiana builders. After lunch, cross the Mississippi River to Oak Alley Plantation, a National Historic Landmark famous for its 1839 Greek Revival architecture and alley of 28 evenly spaced 300-year-old live oak trees. Laura, a Creole Plantation built in 1805, is the next stop. The Creole House with sugarcane fields and historic slave quarters is listed on the National Register and boasts the largest collection of Creole family artifacts original to a Louisiana plantation. Finally, visit Le Petit Versailles, the Garden of Valcour Aime. Constructed in the 1840’s, the jardin anglais is now in ruins on a privately owned site not open to the public, but it is a fascinating reminder of an opulent past. Aime built a rivulet through the garden site, which can still be seen along with a mound and various faux rock formations. For more information on stops along the tour, visit the following web sites: www.destrehanplantation.org; www.sanfranciscoplantation.org; www.houmashouse.com; www.thecabinrestaurant.com; www.oakalleyplantation.com; www.lauraplantation.com Interested participants see education session D7 Slave Landscape and Life in Low Country Plantations: Myth and Reality. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Historic Preservation, and Rural Landscape Design. $90 per person. Fee includes transportation, admission fees, lunch at the Cabin, and handout materials. Led by Dana Nunez Brown, ASLA, professor at Louisiana State University. T03 Level of Walking: Moderate to High With their own distinct qualities, these mixed-use neighborhoods share characteristics— residential conversions, historic greenspaces, visual and musical artists, and pedestrian scale streetscapes— that provide dynamic downtown living outside the French Quarter. Walking through the Warehouse District includes a glimpse of the infamous Piazza d’Italia, now the centerpiece of a hotel restoration project; Lafayette Pedestrian Mall; and the rooftop garden of a converted warehouse, normally closed to the public. Traveling on the riverfront streetcar line through the site of the 1984 World’s Fair, the direct relationship between the river, the French Quarter, and these neighborhoods is easily understood. The Creole neighborhood of Faubourg Marigny is centered on the jazz clubs and restaurants of Frenchmen Street and historic Washington Square and includes the wide neutral ground of Elysian Fields. This neighborhood underwent a renaissance in the 1970s because it was the next available living area adjacent to the pricey French Quarter. Continuing downriver, the bohemian Bywater is home to artists of all types who provide instruction at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. Like the Marigny and Warehouse Districts, it is undergoing a renaissance of residential restoration and public greenspace development. The Marigny and Bywater experience includes an exploration of the intimate courtyard gardens designed with a tropical palette, hidden from the street at the end of very narrow alleyways between camelbacks, shotguns, side halls, and doubles. Interested participants see education sessions A7 The Crescent City and F3 Walkability’s Unique Role in Creating High-Quality Public Space and Community. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Urban Planning and Design, and Reclamation and Restoration. $30 per person. Fee includes streetcar transportation, afternoon break, and handout materials. Tour led by Daniel W. McElmurray, Student ASLA, AICP, landscape architect for PEREZ, a professional corporation T04 - Sold Out Level of Walking: Moderate In historic times, the fluvial landscape of South Louisiana formed the Bayou Metairie. Although only small remnants of the bayou can be seen today as part of the City Park lagoon system, the ridge of high ground formed by the overflowing bayou along its edges is still present in the meandering alignment of Metairie Road. Historically, higher ground was at a premium in New Orleans and all of south Louisiana prior to the development of the huge drainage pumps and canals that now drain the entire city as well as much of Holland. Citizens of the Netherlands perhaps better know the inventor, New Orleans native A. Baldwin Wood, than those of New Orleans. Along the Metairie ridge were early truck farms. Here the higher ground also has the best soils in the upside down landscape profile. This was the perfect place for the early development of the suburb that is still known as Metairie. Along the huge drainage canal separating Orleans Parish from Jefferson Parish sits the magnificent estate of Longue Vue. It is a garden composed of many rooms in the classical style by Ellen Biddle Shipman. To access the gardens, the bus will pass by one of the more beautifully kept cemeteries and the Metairie Golf Course. Some modifications have taken place in later years, but for the most part the mansion is well preserved. After a brief narration by a Longue Vue representative, wander through the various gardens or access the interior. The group will join landscape architects Brian K. Sublette, ASLA, and Bill Daly, ASLA, to visit various gardens located in the area with the highest residential land values in New Orleans. The land is so scarce and sought after that perfectly good mansions are torn down regularly in order to build even more sumptuous ones. A special “overlay” zoning that requires tree protection and landscape approvals prior to construction protects the district. Angela L. Mohar, landscape architect and city planner, will explain the requirements. Several newer gardens will also be visited. Some are large and some are tiny—carefully detailed spaces carved out of typically small New Orleans lots. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Residential Landscape Design; Women in Landscape Architecture; and Historic Preservation. $35 per person. Fee includes transportation, morning break, and handout materials. Led by Rene J. L. Fransen, ASLA, Rene J. L. Fransen, Landscape Architect; Neil Odenwald, PhD, FASLA, director emeritus of the Louisiana State University and noted horticulturist; and Aaron Adolph, ASLA, landscape architect with Torre/Design Consortium, Ltd. T05 - Sold Out Level of Walking: High The only way to experience the French Quarter is on foot. The richness of its “tout ensemble” requires careful observation with the aid of a native who knows what to look for. This thriving town has almost everything, except adequate parking, that one might desire in a vibrant urban community. The architecture is varied, ranging from elegant townhouse mansions complete with slave quarters at their rear to modest wooden cottages. The tout ensemble, which is so carefully guarded by the Vieux Carre Commission, also includes oddball buildings that were obviously added prior to the advent of the VCC. They, too, are protected. Each building is coded as to its importance to the total ensemble. At the heart of the French Quarter are the Place d’Armes, or Jackson
Square, and the Pontalba Apartment Buildings that flank it. Both were
developed by the Baroness Pontalba and are reputed to be inspired by the
similar Place des Voges in Paris where she once resided. Here lies the
Cabildo and Presbytere, the seat of the government prior to the Louisiana
Purchase. A special guided tour of the Cabildo will be a highlight here.
This tour will take place during a special time, because it is the anniversary
of the Louisiana Purchase. The various neighborhoods within the Vieux Carre, each with its own character, will be explored. Each has its own character. The part of Bourbon Street known by most is only a few blocks long! The famed Royal Street boasts fine shops and restaurants. Decatur Street has changed its face from a dusty warehouse street to one focusing on entertainment and tourism. With so much focus on shopping, drinking, music, and eating, one might not realize that the French Quarter is a special residential neighborhood that often goes unnoticed by visitors. The stroll will include the quieter residential districts and the edge of the Quarter along the elegant Esplanade Avenue. Interested participants see education sessions A3 Saving Downtown: Balancing Economics and Authenticity and A7 The Crescent City. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Historic Preservation; and Urban Planning Design. 35 per person. Fee includes admission fees, morning break, and handout materials. Led by Andre P. Neff, New Orleans City Planning Commission. T06 - Sold Out Level of Walking: low w/various physical challenges throughout This tour will explore America's largest overflow river basin swamp. You will marvel at nature’s beauty; see remnants of the ancient Cypress forest that was almost harvested to extinction by the lumbering industry beginning in the early 1900s; and discover a variety of birds, including eagles, pelicans, ducks, and other waterfowl. You will also see an occasional alligator and other land-based wildlife. This is the land of the magical Atchafalaya. The canoe portion of the tour will leave from one of two locations. One location is west of Baton Rouge and the other is in the vicinity of Morgan City nearer the Gulf of Mexico. The final selection will depend on the water levels in the swamp at the time of the annual meeting, which cannot be predicted in advance. In the quiet beauty of the swamp, the brigade of canoes will land in order to have a box lunch served in the wild. During the canoe trip, discussion will include the work of the Atchafalaya Basin Commission to preserve and make it more accessible to visitors. Also explained is its function as a floodway and as a producer of the foods and recreation that natives of Louisiana love. Nature desires to use the Atchafalaya as a shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico, but this would destroy the river commerce in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and essentially create a clear water lake where now there is the muddy Mississippi. Only those who have the physical stamina to canoe for about two hours and who understand that certain shallow water areas might mandate pulling a canoe across the shallows by hand should participate. Be prepared for the possibility of getting wet and muddy. Bring along a towel, shoes that can get wet, a change of clothes, and your camera with a protective bag. Insect repellent is recommended. There are no formal restroom facilities except on the tour bus. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Landscape/Land Use Planning; Reclamation and Restoration; and Water Conservation. $95 per person. Fee includes transportation, canoe rental fees, morning and afternoon breaks, box lunch, and handout materials. Led by “Mr. Atchafalaya,” Charles F. Fryling, Jr., ASLA, associate professor at the Louisiana State University. T07 Level of Walking: Moderate Experience a tour that’s been written up in The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Charlotte Observer, and the Atlanta Constitution Journal. Allow one of the many expert guides of the Friends of the Cabildo to take you on a fascinating, two-hour journey into the past—1803 to be exact—as you stroll through the Place d’Armes, today’s Jackson Square, and the Cabildo. The Cabildo itself is a brick giant with great windows and archways built in the 18th century as the seat of the Spanish municipal government in New Orleans. Step into the Cabildo’s Sala Capitular where the Louisiana Purchase was signed and learn the history and culture of Louisiana at the time of the land transfer. Relive the moment when the fledgling United States nearly doubled its size overnight. Tour the rest of this interesting building including the 1850 House, a museum in the Lower Pontalba Building. Check out Napoleon’s death mask on the second floor of the Cabildo and don’t miss the long, dark lock of Andrew Jackson’s hair. Interested participants see education session A7 The Crescent City. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Reclamation; and Restoration and Historic Preservation. $45 per person. Fee includes transportation, admission fee, and handout materials. Led by docents at the Cabildo. T08-T11 Level of Walking: High This tour is very special because it includes access to gardens that few of the public, including locals, ever get to see. An aerial view of the French Quarter reveals the never-seen cavities and alleyways that make the Vieux Carre so unique. The tour will reveal the many lush, semi-tropical courtyards found in these cavities and show how masterfully garden designers take advantage of small spaces. The miniaturized courtyards were cool and private hideaways that suited the Louisiana climate and the styles of the early Spanish, French, and later Creole architecture. The Patio Planters du Vieux Carre, the venerable French Quarter garden society who will host these private courtyard tours, was established to preserve the qualities of these “secret gardens” and is very protective of their condition. Access is limited and only small numbers may visit at any one time in order to prevent damage through human impact. Those on the tour will break into small groups of five or six people and receive descriptions of the eight gardens plus directions to pass from one to another on their own, at their own pace. Included in the tour of these eight courtyard/patio gardens will be the elegant Bourbon Street town house courtyard of retired Congresswoman Lindy Boggs and a patio garden that was featured on the PBS Victory Garden. Included in the tour will be refreshments in one of the courtyards. After the tour, wander back through the French Quarter for more public “people-watching” and stop off for a beverage or snack, or do a little shopping. Interested participants see education session A3 Saving Downtown: Balancing Economics and Authenticity. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Residential Landscape Design; Context Sensitive Design; and Historic Preservation. $50 per person. Fee includes admission fee, refreshments, transportation to starting point of walking tour, and handout materials. Led by Patio Planters du Vieux Carre and assisted by Louisiana State University students of landscape architecture. T12 - Sold Out Level of Walking: Moderate to High This tour begins at the park directly across from the convention center, where the park’s landscape architects will explain the unique situation that made the development of a small urban park possible. The park is located within the redeveloping Warehouse District, which was in the midst of the l984 World’s Fair. The first warehouse converted to residences sits on one side of the park. Other warehouses have been converted to a hotel and other uses. The entire district is now a thriving residential and art district that includes an outstanding children’s museum and the more recent D-Day Museum founded by Stephen Ambrose and Tom Hanks. The tour will proceed to Audubon Park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Zoo will be featured. In the ‘70s it was declared an "animal ghetto" by zoological societies and was almost shut down. Cashio, Cochran LLC prepared redevelopment plans in 1979, later joining with Azeo Torre, FASLA, to become Design Consortium, Ltd., and continued the planning for what is now a model zoo. The park was recently redeveloped again. The park’s landscape architects will explain the controversy surrounding the redevelopment that is generated by the residents in this residential district. The tour will then proceed to the former Allard Plantation that later became City Park, the largest park in New Orleans. In the Depression Era, the WPA implemented the redevelopment plans created by Olmsted Associates. The park is noted for its ancient live oak trees through which the group will tour. The lagoons function as the drainage basins for the park. Parts of the lagoons were Old Bayou Metairie. The Botanical Garden, a small garden embellished with sculptural elements by Enrique Alvarez, is under redevelopment. The tour will include the recently completed Besthoff Sculpture Garden by Sawyer Berson of New York City. You also will catch a glimpse of the "Story Land Playground for Children,” which features a restored carousel. The tour concludes at the nearby suburban Lafrenier Park designed by Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, and Jim Fondren, FASLA. The park began as a barren site and was built on a former racetrack that was the last available open space in Jefferson Parish. Interested participants see education session B2 Ecological Infrastructure: A Primer for Integrated Wastewater Management. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Historic Preservation; Urban Planning and Design; and Parks and Recreation. $50 per person. Fee includes transportation, admission fees, afternoon break, and handout materials. Lunch on your own in the park. Led by Jack R. Cochran, ASLA, Cashio, Cochran LLC, and Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, president of Theodore Osmundson and Associates. T13 - Sold Out (Repeat of 8:30am tour T03.) Level of Walking: Moderate to High Interested participants see education sessions A7 The Crescent City and F3 Walkability’s Unique Role in Creating High-Quality Space and Community. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Urban Planning and Design; and Reclamation and Restoration. $30 per person. Fee includes streetcar transportation, afternoon break, and handout materials. Led by Daniel W. McElmurray, Student ASLA, AICP, landscape architect for PEREZ, a professional corporation. T14 (Repeat of 10:00am tour T07) Level of Walking: Moderate Interested participants see education session A7 The Crescent City. The tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Reclamation and Restoration; and Historic Preservation. $45 per person. Fee includes transportation, admission fee, and handout materials. Led by docents at the Cabildo. T15 - Sold Out Level of Walking: High New Orleans was once a divided city; a “neutral ground” separated the two cities along what is now Canal Street. The elegant Creoles with their strong ties to France lived a lifestyle of joie de vivre in the French Quarter, which they called the Vieux Carre, away from those “American barbarians” located in the “American Quarter.” The Creoles would send their children to the French Quarter for dancing and fencing lessons. They also founded the first opera house in the United States. The Vieux Carre had its Jackson Square, a dominant feature of the Quarter. The American Quarter had Lafayette Square, beyond which lay the “Garden District” where the Americans built sumptuous mansions of a different style than those in the very urban style of the Vieux Carre. The mansions of the Garden District were set back from the street and were surrounded by gardens displaying a wide variety of temperate and subtropical vegetation. Much larger than their Vieux Carre counterparts, these gardens usually aren’t as intimate. Fortunately the members of New Orleans’ high society have resided here ever since, so the houses have never gone to ruin and the gardens have matured to their present beauty. Some of the gardens have been modified to fit the needs of today’s society and some formerly commercial or less opulent sites nearer the Mississippi River have been cleverly redesigned in creative ways. Although these are private gardens, not open to the general public, the owners have graciously invited you to tour several of them. A stroll through some of the neighborhoods will provide an understanding of the context in which the gardens reside. Look through the old wrought- and cast-iron fences and gates and smell the early fragrance of the sweet olives. Do note a tragedy in the making, however; New Orleans is in a battle to save its structures and trees from the ravages of the Formosan termite. Even the wealthy do not live forever. You will also visit the historic Lafayette Cemetery, known as the “city of the dead.” A member of the Save Our Cemeteries organization will give an expert tour there. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Historic Preservation; and Residential Landscape Design. $60 per person. Fee includes transportation, admission fee, afternoon break, and handout materials. Led by Rene J. L. Fransen, ASLA, Rene J. L. Fransen, Landscape Architect; Neil Odenwald, PhD, FASLA, director emeritus of the Louisiana State University and noted horticulturist; and Aaron Adolph, ASLA, landscape architect with Torre/Design Consortium, Ltd. T16 Level of Walking: Low The tour takes place during a two and a half hour leisurely riverboat cruise on the Mississippi River. The city and its oldest suburbs are seen from a unique vantage point. It is surprising to learn how the bends of the river create special vistas that cannot be appreciated from the shoreline. From the Bywater area just east of the French Quarter, the view back to the Central Business District is particularly dramatic, as the city seems to rise from the waters of Old Muddy. View Algiers Point, an old residential district across the river from the French Quarter, which is undergoing a renovation boom. It is not far from the Gala site, Mardi Gras World, and the United States Navy Base, Port of Embarkation for the federal government. The shoreline of the historic Holy Cross suburban neighborhood can also be seen. At the end of the downriver voyage is Chalmette National Battlefield where the group will disembark to visit the historic house, battlefield, and interpretive exhibits. Cruising back upriver, you can enjoy a cold drink on board and lazily watch the world go by—the sun may even be setting in one of its dramatic fall climaxes. Last, see the twin bridges of the Crescent City Connection and proceed upriver to the obsolete port facilities. This vista allows viewers to visualize what the riverfront used to be like only a few years before the wharf buildings were replaced by Woldenberg Park and the Moon Walk on the river edge of the French Quarter. The wharfs and port areas are the next available sites for riverside development in the future. Interested participants see education session C7 Memories from the Mist: Interpreting Multiple Layers of History at Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery. This tour will appeal to members of the following Professional Interest Groups: Water Conservation; and Context Sensitive Design. $55 per person. Fee includes private riverboat ride, admission fee, and handout materials. Led by Andre P. Neff, New Orleans City Planning Commission. |
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| 636 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001-3736.
Telephone: 202-898-2444, Fax: 202-898-1185. © 2003 American Society of Landscape Architects. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use. |