Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Student Work Jintang, China
Professor Grover Mouton Design Urbanism Seminar Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Overview
On February 14, 1957, leaders of the Civil Rights movement came together in New Orleans to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following on the heels of the Montgomery bus boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other organizers met at the New Zion Baptist Church at the corner of Third St. and Lasalle to form an organization that could coordinate nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the South, eventually taking on wider issues of segregation nationwide.
Site History
The 1957 founding of the SCLC, while seemingly only a moment in history, finds its place within the larger Civil Rights Movement, a defining era in our country’s history. These civil rights meetings occurred in and around the New Zion Baptist Church, including Shakespeare Park, now named for the Reverend A.L. Davis, Jr., who was a key figure in local civil rights actions. The site hosted Martin Luther King, Jr., utilized for strategizing further bus boycotts and other peaceful demonstrations, marching down Lasalle Street to City Hall, and more generally outlining the approach and tone of wider regional actions. Bravery and persistence amongst local civil rights activists helped to turn the tide in the national fight for equality, this site formed an important battleground for the movement. The interpretation of the historic events through creative place-making is intended to cement their position in New Orleans and Louisiana history. Pastor Christmas Gordon, leader of the New Zion Baptist Church, remarked that despite growing up just blocks away from the Church, he did not hear these civil rights stories until he became New Zion’s pastor. Designing a place for contemplation of local civil rights achievements and the national implications of Martin Luther King’s visits and planning meetings will provide a strong source of pride for New Orleans, allow future generations to understand these events, and draw visitors to an important cultural corridor that includes the Dew Drop Inn, Flint Goodridge Hospital, A.L. Davis Park, and gatherings of the Mardi Gras Indians. The students investigated a site along the La Salle Street corridor, adjacent to the New Zion Baptist Church. The site is currently vacant and has a typical New Orleans lot size of 30’ x 120’. Students began working from a base design generated by the TRUDC. Some students sought to detail and improve the existing design while some opted to move in a completely different direction. In the end, students focused upon a wide range of issues from materiality to form and usage.
Program
The program for the site is that of an interpretive center, intended to encourage reflection upon the historic events that took place upon the site. The students were encouraged to also incorporate public gathering space into the design to generate activity on the site. How they accomplished these goals was up to the students, relying primarily upon the deployment of a pavilion(s), memory walls, and signage strategies.
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
CI
CIVIL RIGHTS MEMORIAL LA SALLE and THIRD STREET
Hillary Bocash 4th Year Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Precedent: Aids Memorial studio a+i
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Precedent: Aids Memorial studio a+i
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Urban Sculpture Rok Grdisa
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Gazebo for TV SHow za bor Architects
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Cosmos - The Flower of Tranquility and Peace - Low Maintenance on Site
Park Seating - Safe and Comfortable - Duel Purpose
Martin Luther King Jr. In New Orleans Informational Panels
Gathering Space
Site Attributes Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Grass
Wood
Concrete
Vines
Flowers and Trees
Plan Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
RY
T EN
G
IN ER
TH GA
FO
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IO AT
RM
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Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
S
TIN EA
Points of Entry Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Overall Site Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Gathering Space Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Entry and Bus Stop Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
SCLC Interpretive Center Concept Design Proposal
JESSIE CUI 5th Year Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
MONUMENTAL EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY MIX-USE OPEN & SAFE
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Garden Path
Elevated Garden
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Seating Area Exhibition Path
Public Plaza
Bus Stop Exhibition Board
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
COMMUNITY PARK
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
EXHIBITION CORRIDOR
PUBLIC PLAZA
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
PATH
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
PATH
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Martin Luther King Jr Park Central City
Peter Henseler
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
DISPLAY
DISPL
18 in below gra
SCULPTURE REFLECTION GATHERING INTIMACY S E A TI N G
PLA
CHURCH + NEIGHBORHOOD Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
LAY
DISPLAY
BUS + PARK
AY
SEA TIN G
GATHERING
SEATING
ade
SOCIAL
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Civil Rights Memorial Leslie Katz Second Year Graduate Student Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
LLE SA LA REET ST
CHURCH ANNEX
IRD TH ET
RE
ST
PRIVATE RESIDENCE
PRIVATE RESIDENCE
NEW ZION BAPTIST CHURCH
PRIVATE RESIDENCE
PRIVATE RESIDENCE
Parti
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Plan
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
The Glass
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
The Bench
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park Miles Kozatch 4th Year Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Passeig De St Joan Boulevard by Lola Domènech
The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail Project
La Salle at Third Street
Third Street
Seen on LaSalle
Seen on LaSalle
Render From La Salle Busstop
Render From Third Street
Hard Space
Soft Space
Ground Texture
Site Diagram
Site Plan
M
MLK Urban Park at Third Street and La Salle
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
La Salle Civil Rights Memorial Sumner Miller 4th -Year Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Third and La Salle Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Plan Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
New Orleans Civil Rights Memorial Sanaa Shaikh 4th Year Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
The first thing which particularly struck me about this site and the context of what had previously been designed for it, was that there was a wonderful OPPORTUNITY TO DEFINE SPACE WITH SHADING. Shading structures provide places for people to congregate and pause beneath the unrelenting New Orleans sun. Shading structures can provide a whimsical way to define a space and give it its own identity.
FOR THIS PROJECT, I propose building the site up simply with the landscape marked by trees and shading and nothing much else. The shading structure is built with lightweight aluminum panels and provides shading, but is not so solid thus providing character and a sense of lightness to the pavilion and memorial. The shading system becomes the grand gesture of floating elements hovering over the more solid walls of panels where information can be displayed.
Exploring the Idea of Shading
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
PUBLIC GATHERING
INFORMAL GATHERING
PUBLIC GATHERING
View From Above & Diagram Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Perspective looking Through Shading
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center
THE SITE is divided up intoa few general areas. The first two areas are hard surfaces and consist of the more formal gathering spaces in the pavilion. These spaces are along the front and end of the site. The soft space in the pavilion is where there is greenery. The greenery proides an edge to the site, privacy, and also becomes the place for informal meeting. Finally there is the actual memorial path. This path begins at the front of the site and culminates at the end in one of the more fomal gathering spaces.
Exterior Perspective From Above
Interpretive Urban Design Seminar
Spring 2014
Tulane Regional Urban Design Center