Tulane University School of Architecture New Orleans Water Infrastructure and Architecture Professor John P. Klingman
the new Westersingel Canal, Rotterdam
Spring 2016
(photo JPK)
The intersection of infrastructure and architecture is the area of studio investigation. While the particulars of this investigation arise from post-Katrina New Orleans, the precarious state of U.S. infrastructure increases the relevance of this project type for further investigation at TSA or beyond. The studio is an extension of themes identified in the 2013 Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan (see www.livingwithwater.com). The water planning, orchestrated by Waggonner and Ball Architects, has brought together civil engineers, hydrologists, landscape designers and architects from the Netherlands and the U.S. (including JPK, see www.dutchdialogues.com). Water infrastructure is often assumed to fall within the province of engineering or urban design. But with a city as interconnected with water as New Orleans, we can consider positive potential interactions between engineering, water, landscape and buildings. Beginning at the urban scale, the greater presence of water in New Orleans is put forward as a proposition. Involved will be a surface wet canal system, stormwater storage and groundwater management. This semester’s studio extends the consideration of water infrastructure and architecture. Its locus is a site of primary civic importance, centered on Duncan Plaza. In conjunction with the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, this area is proposed for transformation from the current twentieth century Midcentury Modern assemblage into a civic complex for the twenty-first century, accommodating an expanded program as well as acknowledging the city’s historic and future interdependence with water. The building program is a City Hall Expansion on the site of the existing Civil Courts Building. An unusual aspect of the studio is that students will utilize finished projects for a new Civil Courts Building on the site of the demolished State Office Building/Supreme Court from the spring ’15 Water Studio, while redesigning Duncan Plaza.