■  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 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.

■  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.

■  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.

■  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.

■  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.

■  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 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.