Membership

The jury for this inaugural competition included:

• Austin Allen, ASLA, Ph.D. (Design Jones LLC)
• Elen Deming, FASLA (NC State University)
• Wes Michaels, ASLA, PLA (SMM)
• Stephanie Onwenu, ASLA (JIMA Studio)
• SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA, PLA, ASLA Immediate Past President (Viridis Design Group)
• Daniel McElmurray, ASLA, PLA (City of Slidell).   

Project Site  

Harmony Circle is a significant, but underutilized urban node in New Orleans, a city known for its layered history, vibrant cultural identity, and ongoing work against systemic inequality and climate risk. In the spirit of designing beyond boundaries, participants are invited to explore how landscape architecture and design can reframe boundaries--physical, social, historical, and ecological--as opportunities for reconnection and regeneration. 

The historic traffic circle, which sits at the convergence of several neighborhoods just south of the New Orleans’ French Quarter, is a microcosm of the city’s layered tensions: colonial legacies and cultural resilience, car-centric infrastructure and pedestrian needs, racial and economic divides across adjacent communities, and coastal vulnerability and climate adaptation. Formerly known as Lee Circle, the site was constructed in the mid-19th century as part of the city’s expansion and formal urban design, modeled after European-style boulevards and circles. 

In 1884, the circle became home to a prominent statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and stood as a symbol of white supremacy until the statue was removed after decades of protest in 2017--one of several Confederate monuments taken down across New Orleans as the city reckoned with its racial past. The removal marked a pivotal moment in the city’s landscape of memory and created an opportunity to reimagine the site’s civic role. 

In 2021, the New Orleans City Council officially renamed the site Harmony Circle following community-led efforts. This new name reflects a desire to transform a space of division into one of unity, though the site remains largely unchanged physically. Today, Harmony Circle stands at a crossroads, both literally and symbolically. Its central location between Uptown and Central City, its proximity to transit lines and cultural institutions, and its unresolved form make it an ideal canvas for rethinking what a post-monument public space can be. 

Entrants are tasked to think beyond the boundaries of the given site, clearly defining the unique extents of their design intervention and challenging Harmony Circle’s current role as a car-dominated traffic feature. Participants are encouraged to take the boundaries of Harmony Circle and expand and/or compress it in order to coherently fit the needs of their conceptual design framework. While entries will be judged based on conceptual design rather than constructability, winning proposals must remain grounded to site and sensitive to historical, sociocultural, and ecological contexts. Designers may consider reclaiming space from vehicular use for community programming, integrating stormwater management strategies and native ecology, honoring the cultural memory and legacy of New Orleans’ Afro-Creole identity, and integrating intergenerational use and climate resilience.