In response to the hurricanes of 2005, Musicians’ Village was conceived by Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis as a residential community to promote the return of musicians to the City of New Orleans. The New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity has been instrumental in bringing this vision to reality. The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music will house performance spaces along with teaching/practice studio spaces used for music education and development in the community and will serve as the centerpiece of The Musicians’ Village.

■  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 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.