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New Orleans, Louisiana
Just cause I'm shallow doesn't mean that I'm heartless, just cause I'm heartless doesn't mean that I'm mean
Once a year, the AIA (American Institute of Architects) holds an annual convention and, since joining the organization in 2006, this is the fifth one I have attended after Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Miami- I skipped the 2007 one in San Antonio because the tours seemed awful there and really the only reason to go is the tours. Sure, it’s great to see colleagues and all of those keynotes and receptions have their value, but why go halfway across the country unless you go to see what’s actually there.
And this brings us to the 2011 AIA Convention and New Orleans, Louisiana. I had been to New Orleans once before and (honestly) had yet to really bond with the city. It’s certainly different (which is a big plus) but I’m not a big fan of non stop humidity, creepy voodoo shops and drunk people (which is not a big plus). However past AIA Conventions in Boston, San Francisco and Miami gave me a deeper appreciation of those cities, so there was real hope that the same would happen in New Orleans. And hope is all anyone can really ever ask for in the end.
We start our time in New Orleans on Jackson Square, where my trip started. Actually it started the night before, where the taxi driver from the airport refused to take my credit card after telling me he would when I got in (not a great start, New Orleans). Here you can get killer beignets at Cafe Du Monde, see a statue of Andrew Jackson (who was infamously hated by the locals at the actual Battle of New Orleans) or take pictures of St Louis Cathedral, named after one of the good King Louises. You can also try and avoid a fairly persistent guy trying to engage you in a scam and claiming he would bet me $20 and tell me where I bought my shoes. While he may or may not have known the real answer (the REI in Paramus), I did my best to avoid him altogether. Again, not a great start New Orleans.
One of the things that I had mixed feelings about the AIA Convention this year is that they included a lot of self guided walking tours. Sure the flexibility was appreciated, but you had to pay a lot to take it (like $60 per tour) and then you really didn’t even have to walk them to get the credits, which seemed kind of like a scam to me. Still they did provide an excuse to see other parts of the city and occasionally they were pretty damn awesome.
Of all of the self guided walking tours. none beat the (possibly) over named ET131: Moonlight and Magnolias. The description read: “Visit historic courtyards in the Vieux Carré by candlelight on this self guided tour. This is an exclusive and unique opportunity to peek behind the walls of French Quarter houses to see how locals live. Light refreshments will be provided.” The candlelight part was a real stretch however, especially considering that a tour that starts at 6pm starts about two hours before the sun sets in New Orleans in May, so while there may have been candles somewhere, they really didn’t have that much of an effect.
Of course none of that matters in the end since the actual experience of going behind gates and through alleys to find some really wonderful private spaces was one of the highlights of the whole convention. It’s easy to see the French Quarter as nothing but bars and voodoo shops, this tour showed a whole other side and gave reasons why someone would actually want to live there. Good job New Orleans.
Even if I didn’t already pay for ET105: Self Guided Tour: Garden District Walking Tour, I probably would have still found the time to board one of those way over crowded streetcars and walk around the Garden District anyway. And while it was nice to learn about the actual houses and their history, it was honestly nicer to just walk around absorb the neighborhood, despite the fact that the humidity sometimes made walking around feel like it was not the best use of your time.
I remember a quote from Jean-Claude Van Damme where he said sweating was great because it was like your body was giving you a shower from the inside. I do not know where that quote is from or why I chose to remember that and not, say, the Periodic Table of the Elements, but here we are. Maybe I remember that quote because I am not a fan of sweating a lot, and after the midday self guided walking tour of the garden district, I decided to adjust course and take the next self guided walking tour in the morning.
Getting to Algiers Point in the morning from New Orleans is easy (ferries leave from the foot of Canal Street only a few blocks from my hotel) and apparently unpopular (I was the only passenger on the Algiers Point ferry that morning). Once you pay the ferryman (it turns out you have to pay him before he gets you to the other side) and cross the river, you’ll find an interesting (though honestly not spectacular) working neighborhood that, if it wasn’t for the AIA Convention and all of its self guided walking tours, you likely would have never even known existed, let alone made the time to walk its streets.
If you’re going to see live music in New Orleans and you actually care about what you see, chances are that you’re going to find yourself at Preservation Hall. And, as you listen to the band, you’ll understand that the “Preservation” part refers to the music and not the actual space you’re in, which feels as if it could use a little more preserving at some point.
