John Hoal to speak on New Orleans March 5

John Hoal, Ph.D., associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, will speak about his recent work in New Orleans at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 5, as part of the spring Architecture Lecture Series.

The talk is free and open to the public and takes place in the auditorium of Whitaker Hall, located near the intersection of Forest Park Parkway and Hoyt Drive. The Architecture Lecture Series is sponsored by the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. For more information call (314) 935-9300 or visit www.arch.wustl.edu.

Last fall Hoal’s firm, H3 Studio Inc., was one of five selected to lead the Unified New Orleans Plan, which is developing various rebuilding scenarios in the city’s 13 planning districts. H3 Studio, which was chosen from a field of 65 national and international firms, was given primary responsibility for overall planning in Districts 2, 8 and 13, and for planning at the neighborhood level in District 12.

District 2, split almost equally between high ground and low ground, is a pie-shaped area wedged between downtown and uptown along the Mississippi River. This district is probably best known for the historic Garden District, home to a famously well-preserved collection of Southern mansions; and the predominantly African-American Central City neighborhood, the latter of which sustained significant flood damage. Other areas include Milan and the Irish Channel.

District 8 includes the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the most damaged areas in New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward comprises approximately 2.8 square miles and is bounded by the Industrial Canal to the west, the Florida Avenue Canal to the north, the St. Bernard Parish line to the east and the Mississippi River to the south. This historically African-American neighborhood has been associated with numerous artists, musicians and civil rights leaders, including Antoine Dominique Domino — better known as Fats Domino — who at the time of Katrina lived on Caffin Avenue. It is also home to one of the city’s first schools desegregated schools, John D. McDonogh #19 (now Louis D. Armstrong Elementary).

District 13 is located across the river on the Mississippi’s west bank, on a large swath of land formed by a sharp bend in the river. Predominantly a conservation area, it includes the lower- to middle-income communities of New Aurora as well as the suburban English Turn area (home to a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course), the English Turn Wilderness Park and the Audubon Nature Institute’s Center for Research of Endangered Species.

District 12, also located on the west bank, includes Algiers Point, Algiers Naval Station, Aurora, the William J. Fischer Housing Development, the McDonogh neighborhood and the Tall Timbers/Brechtel neighborhood.

Prior to forming H3 Studio, Hoal co-founded and served as director for the City of St. Louis’ first Urban Design Department. Major projects he has overseen include the $110 Forest Park Master Plan, which rebuilt much of the historic park’s crumbling infrastructure, and St. Louis’ $1.4 billion Downtown Development Action Plan.