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Home , Desire Street, French Quarter

THE OLD AND THE NEUTRAL THE MILE-LONG CRESCENT PARK IN SHOWS AMBITIONS MEETING REALITY.

BY JOHN KING, HONORARY ASLA

MANDEVILLE WHARF An elliptical lawn marks the heart of Crescent Park, part of an ambitious project intended to revitalize a rough industrial edge of the in New Orleans. TIMOTHY HURSLEY TIMOTHY

80 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 / 81 N A LANGUID FRIDAY floodwall roughly 10 feet high as well afternoon in New Orleans, as railbeds where freight cars might the sounds of the French Quar- sit for days between journeys. The Oter Festival spill downriver toward stylized promenade is promoted by Crescent Park. The music is loudest at some as New Orleans’s answer to Mil- the park’s Mandeville Wharf, but the lennium Park or the High Line, one dozen or so visitors seem to pay no with a photogenic bridge designed by notice as they lounge on a raised lawn the architect David Adjaye. Its impact next to remnants of a vast storage on the adjacent Bywater neighbor- shed, or ride scooters in the shade cast hood, where small colorful houses by the new corrugated roof, or lean line where the sidewalks come against galvanized steel guardrails and go, can be seen in the condo com- TOP to watch a barge plow through the plexes starting to rise along its edge. The industrial heritage dark waters. Nor can the distant din of the riverfront seen compete with the cries of the seagulls Viewed through a wider lens, Cres- in this 1950s photo is retained in the who have claimed a fenced-off stretch cent Park fits within the constellation forms and materials of the wharf as their own. of urban waterfronts reclaimed by of the park. cities across the in an This low-key scene is typical for Cres- effort to serve locals, attract visitors, RIGHT cent Park, a 1.4-mile-long public space and help to kick-start growth. But From above, along the Mississippi River that was as the rough-edged, sparingly artis- Hargreaves Associates’ arcing lines take a hint completed in 2015. The park starts tic space designed by the firm Har- from the crescent of the just east of the French Quarter but is greaves Associates has settled into riverfront as it bends. cut off from easy inland access by a the physical and cultural landscape, RIGHT HOUSER, STEPHEN LEFT; NOPSI, CAMPANELLA

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MONTEGUT ST

CHARTRES ST ESPLANADE AVE CLOUET ST

ST FERDINAND ST

LOUISA ST

ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE FIELDS ELYSIAN SPAIN ST SPAIN

N PETERS ST PIETY ST MANDEVILLE ST MANDEVILLE

MARIGNY ST MARIGNY PROMENADE PIETY BRIDGE DESIRE ST

GALLIER ST

CONGRESS ST

BARRACKS ST PRESS INDEPENDENCE ST WHARF RUINS CHARTRES ST PAULINE ST

PREFABRICATED LOUISA STREET ALVAR ST GOV NICHOLLS ST BRIDGE MANDEVILLE WHARF WHARF RUINS N PETERS ST BARTHOLOMEW ST DECATUR ST MAZANT ST PIETY WHARF DESIRE STREET ESPLANADE WHARF WHARF RUINS AVE CONGRESS STREET WHARF RUINS

PAULINE STREET WHARF GOV NICHOLLS WHARF

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it feels less like a catalyst than one floodwall and rail lines and connect came standard-issue circular ones. neighborhood by a striking but more layer of New Orleans’s se- the isolated linear park to the city A playground was deleted, as was straightforward prefabricated bridge ductively tangled connection to its beyond—and, it was hoped, become an interactive water feature on the that rises amid utility towers and river—an insertion that’s different symbols of head-turning change. edge of Mandeville Wharf’s ellipti- touches down alongside the platform- from what the city has seen before, cal lawn. The biggest loss, literally: like wharf, which covers three acres. but also one tempered by the deeper “We wanted designers who would Maltzan’s pedestrian bridge, which Downriver at the other end, there’s a realities of place. city since the French Quarter,” ac- (unrelated) corruption charges. The understand New Orleans at a very would have swooped from the edge dog run and a parking lot that offers cording to the cover letter cosigned towers are nowhere to be seen. Only deep level,” said Sean Cummings, a of the French Quarter out above the the lone ground-level entrance to the UST AS THE 20-ACRE PARK by then-Mayor . Each end Crescent Park exists—built with $30 local developer who led the Building river and then down into Mandeville park. Only a chain-link fence sepa- J is shaped physically by the indus- of the six-mile-long planning area million in Katrina-related federal Corporation during Nagin’s time in Wharf. rates the parking lot from the rotted TOP trial and natural features that press would be anchored by residential recovery funds, on a stretch of the office. “The project needed to look wooden remnants of a derelict pier. The plan of the park close on each side, its origins were towers, with an array of attractions river where cargo operations ceased good, but also be authentic and in- Partly because of all this subtraction, knits a series of shaped by a much grander develop- between them to form “a new, 21st decades ago. stantly familiar to local people.” but also because of Hargreaves’s de- The one section where things open character-driven ment plan that most likely will never century urban landscape.” sign strategy, Crescent Park today is up and Hargreaves could craft a wharves together come to pass. Hargreaves was part of Reinventing The rezoning to allow the park was less a unified space than a string of more elaborate space is midway, and is intended to draw locals from The plan, which received a 2008 the Crescent’s planning team, and approved in January 2010, with an encounters connected by a 20-foot- at Piety Street, which also is where the Bywater, Marigny, The concept traces back to Reinvent- ASLA Professional Award for Analy- it started work on Crescent Park as expectation that it would open in wide path of concrete and asphalt little Adjaye’s bridge serves as the most and French Quarter ing the Crescent, a planning effort sis and Planning, included projec- soon as city officials decided to focus 2011. But progress was fitful, and changed from when it was a wharf obvious link to Bywater and such neighborhoods. launched by the New Orleans Build- tions that a $294 million public resources on what they hoped would the first piece didn’t open until 2014. apron where workers moved pallets local mainstays as Frady’s, a corner ing Corporation in the aftermath of investment would reap nearly $3.6 be an attention-getting waterfront The second followed one year later. stacked with break-bulk cargo. market with humble but heroic INSET . The plan’s final billion in private development and destination. To up the star wattage, po’boy and muffuletta sandwiches. A prefabricated bridge elevates pedestrians version was released in 2008 with 24,000 new jobs. But the crystal ball the architects Michael Maltzan and Along the way, design features There’s the area around Mandeville Here, the curving rail spurs to the for a bit of industrial an official goal to create “the most was clouded by hype. Today, Nagin David Adjaye were each hired to de- were sacrificed to hold down costs. Wharf, reached from the French abandoned wharfs were replaced by glamour. significant physical addition to this is in jail after being convicted of sign bridges that would span the BOTTOM HURSLEY, TIMOTHY TOP; ASSOCIATES, HARGREAVES Custom-designed picnic tables be- Quarter and the adjacent Marigny porous asphalt strips, between which

84 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 / 85 RIGHT Plantings feel restrained compared to the rest of the city’s storied fecundity.

are bands of native plants arranged in strokes of color. It’s a focused space intended as a communal crossroads, with a hammock as well as the round picnic tables scattered beneath oak, maple, and birch trees.

The striped plantings aren’t nearly as bold as in renderings, a lingering effect of elevated acidity levels in the soil imported by the contractor. The troubles related to soil quality were among the reasons for the delayed opening; even now, the park’s veg- etation looks sparse and strained for a warm, humid coastal city where everything else seems overgrown.

But even if the plants and trees were thriving, the main show would still be the surroundings. The river churns past on one side, masked in long stretches by fast-growing volunteer trees that emerge from alluvial soil along the riverbank and in the spring are laced with aro- matic honeysuckle vines. (Kirt Rie- der, ASLA, Hargreaves’s principal in charge for the park, calls this stretch of the tidal zone known locally as batture “junglelike. It’s mind- blowing.”) Inland are the rail lines

and floodwall, only a few buildings HURSLEY TIMOTHY

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SITE SECTION – GALLIER STREET

SITE SECTION – BATTURE

beyond them tall enough to be was important to recognize that her- tics who see the park and its design likely to be redeployed anytime soon. “David was pretty clear-eyed about Though both landscapes are roughly visible. Then there’s Piety Wharf, itage and build on what was there.” aspirations as magnets for new devel- The signature design element for what he wanted,” says Dumez, con- the same length, the High Line has a a clearing entered through blunt opment and for people seeking the Crescent Park is Adjaye’s bridge at ceding that he knows people who $3.5 million operations budget with a gates of rusted steel. The storage Mary Margaret Jones, FASLA, Har- latest chic twist to a familiar locale. Piety Street. Known locally as the hate the bridge as well as love it. large maintenance staff augmented shed that once covered the now- greaves’s president and a senior prin- “rusty rainbow” for the Cor-Ten steel “He desired that spatial quality of by volunteers. Crescent Park has two open wharf is long gone except for a cipal, agrees. “The design needed Look past the easy symbolism, panels that frame the arcing form, being within a contained path with maintenance staff members and a 122-foot-long concrete fire wall that to be robust, because it’s along the though, and the comparison is a it fans up over the floodwall to land the release being a rifle-shot view contract with a landscape company to is 40 feet high at its peak; on the far Mississippi, and the existing wharfs stretch. Crescent Park isn’t nearly alongside the picnic area. “The arch toward the river.” tend the gardens. New York’s elevated side, behind fences, a scarred tangle already have that character. All that as seamless, for starters. Where the signals transcendence,” Adjaye said Eden is framed by showy buildings of piles and timber bears witness figured into our decision not to chal- High Line is a curated progression in an e-mailed statement, with a All this adds up to an overly man- by the likes of Zaha Hadid and Jean to a fire in 2009 that apparently lenge the industrial context.” of fine-grained sensations, at once desire “to celebrate the city and its nered drama in a setting where struc- Nouvel, with the Brobdingnagian started in a homeless encampment romantically disheveled and meticu- many triumphs.” But this is a de- tural remnants like Piety Wharf’s towers of Hudson Yards rising at the beneath the wharf. NEVITABLY, Crescent Park has lously maintained, Crescent Park terminedly controlled celebration, concrete fire wall have an innate High Line’s north end. The only infill I been likened to the High Line. Usu- feels like a collage of found parts given that the Cor-Ten panels lining power all their own. Yes, the materi- project completed near Piety Bridge, “We left it as an artifact,” shrugs Steve ally it’s in an upbeat, check-this-out amid an immense landscape—not the steep steps inside are so high ality of the bridge relates to the indus- Crescent View Lofts, consists of seven ABOVE Dumez of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, sort of way (“New Orleans’ version just the mighty Mississippi or the that you can’t look over the sides. trial surroundings. Yes, local boosters condominiums in two three-story A bridge by the the New Orleans architecture firm of N.Y.C.’s High Line,” was Conde tattered wooden piers, or the graffiti- Then you reach the peak—and in- proudly call the bridge iconic. It still buildings. architect David Adjaye that led the Reinventing the Cres- Nast Traveler’s shorthand last winter). scarred freight cars, but such local stead of a 360-degree vista, there’s seems to try a bit too hard. was intentionally designed to be a cent planning team. “The inspira- Faded infrastructure is repurposed landmarks as a pair of large gray a hemmed-in view straight ahead of Although other projects are on the marketable icon tion from the start was that this had as a must-see destination. But the naval ships that are anchored just the fire-scarred half of Piety Wharf Another difference, to state the obvious, way, including a 12-unit complex next of the park. been a working waterfront, and it analogy has also been used by skep- beyond park boundaries and aren’t HURSLEY TIMOTHY ASSOCIATES HARGREAVES and the water beyond. is that New Orleans is not New York. to the bridge that is being marketed

88 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 / 89 MATERIALS AND FURNISHINGS PLAN – SECTION E

SITE PLAN KEY PLAN N

as Piety on the Park, fears that Cres- you’ll see it enthusiastically utilized, going lures are a trio of free fitness cent Park might be a Trojan horse but not packed by any stretch of the classes at Mandeville Wharf run by for gentrification seem to have faded. imagination.” the local krewe Move Ya Brass. Airbnb is a more pressing concern of local activists; many of the cheerfully What the linear space has become, Part of the reason for avoiding large ramshackle houses in Bywater and for now, is a neighborhood park events was a conscious decision not PLANTING PLAN Marigny have been purchased by af- with a spectacular location. You see to rattle neighbors who had com- fluent nonresidents who treat them people strolling deep in conversa- plained at meetings about the traf- as second homes and rent them out tion, parents teaching toddlers to use fic and noise impacts that might for much of the year. their bikes, young adults lunching at result from concerts or festivals. But the picnic tables or sharing bottles the low-key draws that are offered “Crescent Park abetted a reinvest- of wine later in the day. Piety Bridge instead have struggled. A morning ment movement that was already is popular with people working out, coffee truck in the picnic area did under way” rather than serving to doing their best to jog up and over, almost no business. Nor did a cart on kick-start gentrification, says Richard back and forth. summer evenings offering sno-balls, Campanella, a geography professor New Orleans’s take on shaved ice. ABOVE in the School of Not only does Crescent Park lack the Butia capitata (South Architecture and the author of such crowds associated with the High Line, “We live in a city saturated with American jelly palm) books as Cityscapes of New Orleans. or such high-profile waterfront espla- events and markets on the week- and Liriope muscari A former neighborhood resident, he nades as San Francisco’s Embarcade- ends,” says KC Guidry, who man- (big blue lilyturf) puts the park in context by switch- ro, it’s free of the programming that ages Crescent Park for the French are among the plants featured in the gardens ing to local slang: “Crescent Park is fills other recent urban spaces in other Market Corporation, an autonomous found midway through lagniappe, a little something extra.… U.S. cities. Though both wharves are city body that was selected for the job

Crescent Park. On a beautiful Saturday morning wired for large events, the only on- when larger operators showed little OPPOSITE AND RIGHT ASSOCIATES, HARGREAVES LEFT; HURSLEY, TIMOTHY

90 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 / 91 GRANITE BENCHES

PIETY WHARF FENCE (PARTIAL DETAIL) ABOVE Swaths of plants in monochrome bands are interspersed with concrete paths that follow the crescent forms.

OPPOSITE, TOP RIGHT Pedestrian views on the bridge are constrained by design.

interest. “The thing that’s hard is that Crescent Park to city ownership so The Moonwalk dates to 1975, and it people say they want these things, that they can become publicly acces- was the first place where a regular but getting them to come over the sible. A full makeover is years away, person could stand alongside the bridges is difficult.” with no telling what form any new Mississippi on this stretch of the riv- public spaces might take, but the er. A decade or so later it was joined Soon, there might be more options. short-term goal is clear walkways by Woldenberg Park, adjacent to the that will connect Crescent Park to the city’s aquarium toward the conven- City Hall and the Port of New Or- Moonwalk, a public waterfront space tion center. Though both spaces are leans last fall worked out a deal to that leads down to Jackson Square in popular and have been recently reno-

TIMOTHY HURSLEY, TOP; HARGREAVES ASSOCIATES, BOTTOM ASSOCIATES, HARGREAVES TOP; HURSLEY, TIMOTHY BOTTOM AND LEFT ASSOCIATES, HARGREAVES RIGHT; TOP BIENVENU, MARK transfer a pair of wharves alongside the French Quarter. vated, they’re fairly generic clearings

92 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JULY 2018 / 93 RIGHT Part of a challenged plan to revitalize the Crescent, the park is coming into its own as a destination, slowly.

that offer benches and panoramas There’s an only-in-New-Orleans but not much else. phrase, “neutral ground,” that applies to street medians and the like. Figura- The idea of Reinventing the Crescent tively, at least for now, Crescent Park was to push New Orleans beyond the is neutral ground as well—between tried and true, to use the waterfront locals and tourists, recently arrived as a tool “for attracting new talent in a hipsters and deep-rooted residents, new economy driven by information, people who want a photogenic spot media, and technology,” to quote the for selfies and people who just want 2008 plan. This raw global ambition to be alone. In today’s America, strati- is part of why the effort foundered in fied and suspicious, that’s a modest a historically proud though troubled triumph in itself. city, why neighborhoods were wary. But the comfortable success of Cres- JOHN KING, HONORARY ASLA, IS AN URBAN DE- cent Park has exerted a slow gravita- SIGN CRITIC FOR THE SAN FRANSCISO CHRON- tional pull that helps other elements ICLE AND LIVES IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA. begin to fall into place. Project Credits “When you build a thing like this, no- LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, DESIGN LEAD HAR- body wants to go all-in at first,” Guidry GREAVES ASSOCIATES, CAMBRIDGE, MAS- SACHUSETTS. EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT ESKEW+ says. “You have to be patient.” DUMEZ+RIPPLE, NEW ORLEANS. ARCHITECT MANDEVILLE WHARF MICHAEL MALTZAN AR- Despite the loose ends and half- CHITECTURE, LOS ANGELES; PIETY WHARF realized visions, Crescent Park feels & BRIDGE ADJAYE ASSOCIATES, NEW YORK. right for New Orleans, a city where CULTURAL SCRIPTING CAROL BEBELLE, NEW ORLEANS. CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEER- tattered shingles or stoops add to the ING KULKARNI CONSULTANTS, NEW ORLEANS. shrugging ambience. If the tension LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT M. JOHANNA LEIBE, between ambitions and reality is ines- NEW ORLEANS. LIGHTING PHA LIGHTING DE- capable, so is the pleasure of a wholly SIGN, ATLANTA. MEP LUCIEN T. VIVIEN JR. & ASSOCIATES INC., NEW ORLEANS. MARINE new landscape that takes the com- ENGINEERING WALDEMAR S. NELSON & COM-

plexity of its surroundings as a given. PANY, INC., NEW ORLEANS. BIENVENU MARK

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