■  Built on a site along the Mississippi River in New Orleans’ historic Vieux Carré, the Aquarium of the Americas opened in September 1990, and the adjacent and surrounding 15-acre Woldenburg Riverfront Park opened in Fall, 1989. Mathes Brierre Architects was one of five firms forming the Bienville Group to conceive, design, and complete the facility in less than four years. In addition to exhibits with nearly four hundred species of fish, reptiles, and other animals, the Aquarium also houses a seafood restaurant, a gift shop, classrooms, research labs, offices, and salinization equipment.

■  The Arizona State University Music School joins an ensemble of three monumental public buildings; the Gammage Center by Frank Lloyd Wright, The Fine Arts Center by Antoine Predock, and the Music Building by the Taliesin Fellowship. The Music Building Expansion incorporates a recital hall, a rehearsal hall, departments for jazz, percussion, electronic music, choral, organ, and music education, and a 30,000 square foot music library. The project also includes faculty studios, graduate teaching assistant offices, practice rooms, and the auxiliary, technical and administration spaces. Mathes Brierre Architects, formerly The DWL Architects and Planners in Phoenix.

■  The Audubon Tea Room is the revival of a classic building built in Audubon Park in the 1930's and destroyed by fire in the late 1970's. The original was part of a complex of buildings across from the Audubon Zoo that included a carousel and a bandstand. The bandstand is all that is left. Casio Cochran LLC selected Mathes Brierre Architects to be the associated architectural firm for this famous city landmark design.

■  The new Audubon Zoo entry complex is the last major piece of the zoo revitalization plan begun years before. The new gateway buildings and plaza orient the visitor to the palm lined axis of the new zoo plan. The gateway structures include a large gift shop building and a building containing organization staff, membership, and a food and beverage concession. Casio Cochran LLC selected Mathes Brierre Architects to be the associated architectural firm for this famous city landmark design.

■  Hibernia National Bank leased nine floors of office space in the Place St. Charles building in 2005. The first three phases included office space consisting of workstations of varying heights and offices that have aluminum storefronts on the perimeter to allow natural light into the central work areas. A large employee break area with lounge seating and stained concrete flooring was designed on Floor 17 as well a state-of-the-art fitness center. New finishes and a bright color palette were brought into the design of the space to provide new and bright office space and in keeping with the Capital One main headquarters.

■  The existing gallery was renovated into a vital regional arts center by improving exhibition space and upgrading the infrastructure for increased capabilities. The ground floor gallery space was retained as an open space but made more versatile with the fabrication of broad, sweeping walls, most of which cover the exposed masonry structure. Due to the height of the warehouse cavern, a second level was inserted in between the gallery and the upper level to house the administrative suite. These offices, conference room, and reception area all overlook the gallery below. The renovated third floor includes a classroom and a multi-purpose auditorium that hosts lectures, live performances, and films.

■  Achieving LEED certification was a guiding principal throughout the design process. The office areas have accessible flooring which serves as both an air distribution plenum and wire way for power and data systems. The office towers are oriented such that the long facades of the building face North and South, maximizing the light but minimizing the heat gain associated with the East and West facades. This building is the first commercial office building to achieve LEED Gold certification in Louisiana.

■  This facility houses the offices for the coal storage and handling company within an industrial site located along the Mississippi River . The program included executive offices, supervisory personnel rooms and a meeting / training room. The architects developed an axial plan using repetitive structural bays and locating entrances on both ends of the central axis. The elongated “parti” maximized the views from the building of the adjacent river and port facilities. In efforts to enhance the quality of the workspace and provide a sense of unity, a two-story naturally illuminated circulation spine was created. All offices within the building open directly out to this central axis.

■  All banking functions remain on the first floor at this a-typical fidelity branch. A separate after-hours entry with an elevator allows the banking area to remain secure while the second floor is in use after-hours. training facilities for bank employees and the board room are on the second floor. The large training area also serves as a gathering space for functions hosted by Fidelity. A generous break room and food preparation area are also included. .

■  The Music School incorporates a 900 seat Concert Hall, a 200-seat organ/ recital hall and an art gallery. The Organ/Recital Hall is a multi-functional space with seating that is moveable and can be rearranged. Recitals take place upon a stage at one side, while organ performances are viewed from the opposite end. This space also features a viewing balcony, allowing a raised position for the pipe organ, enhancing the quality of the organ's sound. The curvilinear lobby connects all the primary building spaces including the courtyard. This central space is an important design element and symbolic to the Mennonite faith, respecting the founders of Goshen College.

■  Mathes Brierre Architects provided the architectural, interior design and landscape services for the full renovation of the Tower Hotel, originally built in 1971. Due to conditions associated with Hurricane Katrina, it was repurchased in 2008, unoccupied and uninhabitable. Located across the river from downtown New Orleans , the 13 story iconic tower provides guests with panaromic views of the city skyline. The 181 room hotel and full service restaurant was designed into a sleak, contemporary Holiday Inn with all the modern-day ammenitiies for guests.

■  Freeport-Mcmoran, the copper and gold import company, hired textron, a local ship building company, to design a speed boat to be based near Freeport’s Indonesia location, where water tides shift so frequently, riverbeds can actually disappear within hours. Therefore, the boat needed to transport international clientele on land as well as water. The challenge for the Mathes Group was not only to design a high class interior to entertain and impress Freeport clientele, but everything in the boat, was required to be fixed in place due to the 70 mph boat speed. The boat was also equipped with a state-of-the-art audio/visual system for sales meetings during transport.

■  For 94 years, the Krauss Department Store grew to be one of the largest retail establishments in New Orleans . Two 6-story buildings with bridges at every level were converted to condominiums including several penthouse units with private terraces overlooking the Central Business District and the French Quarter. Major structural modifications were made to the building to introduce 5-story light-wells in the center and the addition of a mezzanine parking level. The conversion design includes a formal drive-through leading directly to the large lobby and a multi-level rooftop swimming pool/terrace with spectacular city views.

■  The Lake Area Katrina Memorial Park concept is to express the story of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe in New Orleans while also expressing the city’s crucial relationship with its water resources. The park utilizes water as a central unifying and symbolic element. The Katrina story is a dramatic event in the history of the city’s long relationship with water, and this concept seeks to remember the impact of that event and the individual lives lost, while also affording reflection upon the importance of the area’s natural water resources to the city’s way of life and unique cultural identity.

■  The design concept allowed the original building’s materials and wood structure to be the focus of the interior spaces. The new architectural elements were kept simple and modest. Although, the floor area was divided into individual offices, all occupants have views upward and outward which celebrate the historic building. New partitions were kept low and glass clearstories were added over offices. Wood beams were installed between existing columns. Original historic parts of the building such as the sliding fire door at the stair and the bi-fold service elevation door were allowed to remain as non- functioning elements of the interior design.

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■  The design concept for the library was to blend a new aesthetic with the existing Tudor Gothic architecture of the original campus buildings. Matching brick and cast stone were used to emulate the original architecture, but larger window openings allow significantly more diffused light, though red (Jesuit) crosses, into the spacious interiors. The Library has recently (2009) been rated the 5th best in the country by the Princeton Review.

■  Federal City is a newly planned joint facility, distinguished by its form, function, and fiscal viability. It consolidates the two bases of the Naval Support Activity and provides combined facilities and services for the Army, Navy, Marines, Dept. of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard. The new site is shared and protected, located on the Westbank. The new Dept. of Defense force structure deems the reservists “first responders” in national defense, positioning Federal City as an ideal regional headquarters for Homeland Security. The consolidation of these support commands in this location will facilitate collaboration and create a training environment that replicates conditions for emergency deployment.

■  Metairie Country Club designed by our predecessor firm, and was built in 1924. It has undergone several renovations since then. Extensive flooding and roof damage occurred from Hurricane Katrina and has since been demolished, redesigned and, now is being reconstructed. The original building is being re-stored to its 1924 grandeur. Mathes Brierre Architects was selected to design the “new” Club, which consistes of restoration of the 1924 portion and the and additions around this centerpiece. The pools and tennis courts have been relocated, while the gym was expanded.

■  ‘Mother’s Next Door’ and the expansion to the existing dining room are the first renovations to the historic New Orleans restaurant which originally opened in 1938. It was important in the design to preserve the feel of the existing space. The adjacent warehouse, originally a tobacco warehouse with open shafts and hand operated elevators, has become an extension of the dining room. The warehouse next door – ‘Mothers Next Door’ – was designed to be a 290 person capacity banquet hall for private parties and events. The exposed brick and plaster trim have been preserved in order to provide an aesthetic consistency with the existing restaurant.

■  Mathes Brierre Architects was selected by Voorsanger Architects to be their partner on this project, which consists of Master Planning design and preparation of Construction Documents for the first two phases of an $86,000,000 expansion of the National World War II Museum. The first two phases consist of a multi-sensory Theater, a USO experience, a restaurant and bar, the restoration of three historic buildings along Magazine Street into administrative space, and the Campaigns Pavilion, the first of the major exhibit pavilions.

■  Mathes Brierre Architects worked in collaboration with the City of New Orleans, the State, the New Orleans Forensic Center, and the New Orleans Katrina Memorial Corporation, to develop a memorial to honor the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Six mausoleums were built to house the unclaimed victims of the storm. The design combines the literal form of a hurricane with the meditative nature of a labyrinth. The memorial was constructed in a historic cemetery, consisting of centuries of unmarked graves, where digging was strictly prohibited. The planting scheme included sets of arc shaped berms planted with native Bald Cypress Trees and native shrubs. The berms reinforce the shape of the memorial and create and introspective sense of place within.

■  The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts was established in 1973 as a “training center” for students in theater, music, dance, communications, and the visual arts. From 1973 until 1999, it was housed in the old LaSalle School in uptown New Orleans and produced world famous performers like Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. The new NOCCA weaves all classrooms, studios, and performance facilities into a campus environment evoking the spontaneity and creativity of the students and incorporating several existing historically significant cotton warehouse buildings and new buildings for the specialized spaced required for the activities that take place therein.

■  The 53 story granite-clad reinforced concrete office tower was constructed on the most prestigious location in downtown New Orleans , the site of the former St. Charles Hotel, located in New Orleans ’ historic Business District on St. Charles Avenue . The building has a two-level retail arcade with shops and a food court, parking for 800 cars, spacious ground level arcades, and wide balconies offering shelter from the elements, and a distinctive design culminating in two 50 foot glass lanterns offering spectacular views for tenants and a lighted beacon in the night skyline.

■  This project consists of a 710 acre peninsula on the Island of Anguilla to be developed as a golf course community with amenities on the scale of a ‘new town,’ including a 140 key 5-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 75 luxury villa estate homes, 450 patio homes, 140 town homes, beach clubs, restaurants, retail, and an 18 hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. The scope of the planning includes site infrastructure of roads, remote parking, landscaping, wastewater treatment, power plant, wind generators and utility distribution.

■  Located one block from the French Quarter this 850,000 SF mixed-use development will include 3 towers: a 4-star hotel, an extended stay hotel, and a condominium. A conference center will include a 45,000 sf ballroom. A culinary institute, a Mardi Gras museum, sports bar and other retail/ entertainment will face onto a controlled street with balconies overlooking parades that will pass through the project during carnival season. The site will also have a bike path that connects the Laffite Greenway to City park and the Lake.

■  This new gourmet eatery was a tenant build-out space located in the lobby of the Place St. Charles building, also a former Mathes Brierre project. Lantern-like pendant lights and a new dropped ceiling were design elements that worked with the glass conservatory and high ceilings of the existing space. A modern color palette was used to create an inviting and vibrant cafe which complemented the sophisticated lobby interiors of the commercial building.

■  The Mathes Brierre Planning and Landscape Architecture Studio provided urban design expertise for a physical and economic vision for this existing medical and biosciences district to position the area for sustainable future growth as a key component of the New Orleans economy. The urban design elements include wayfinding, sustainable transportation, open space integration, infrastructure improvements, and mixed-use development enhancements.

■  The Building consists of 64 faculty studios, 80 practice rooms, a band rehearsal hall, a choral rehearsal hall, opera rehearsal hall and an ensemble hall as well as a small recital hall, library, classrooms and administrative offices. The design borrows art deco detailing from other buildings on campus, though the detailing has been simplified to modern brick construction. Monumental murals by world-renowned abstract artist, Frank Stella, adorn the Opera Lobby ceiling, the rear wall of the mezzanine and the oval shaped catwalk of the Opera Hall itself.

■  Mathes Brierre Architects was hired to completely update and renovate the two buildings of the former ‘Yankee Trader Hotel’ on Fort Lauderdale Beach . The North building was originally constructed in the 60’s, while the South was built in the 70’s. Along with the renovation, a resort spa and major banquet facility of 68,000 square feet were added to the South building. The public spaces and guest rooms of the hotel were redesigned in collaboration with Forrest Perkins of Dallas . The challenge was to fully complete the hotel makeover before the January NFL Superbowl of 2010. Mathes Brierre was able to successfully complete the up-scale redesign within the strict time constraints.

■  The site chosen was at the distinguished corner of Alameda Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo y Calle Nueva Uno in the new financial district of Colonia Escalon in San Salvador. The building consists of two underground levels of parking and five floors of office space. It has been built to US standards of a Class A building. Pan American Life now occupies portions of three floors of the building. Citibank, N.A. and other Multi-national companies have purchased various floors of the building.