NOLA faces demolish or renovate debate.
Two largely out-of-town development teams would like to renovate the vacant World Trade Center office tower at the foot of Canal Street for use as a hotel and other purposes. On the other hand, a broad-based coalition of New Orleans tourism leaders wants to demolish the 33-story building built in the 1960s and replace it with a new “iconic” structure as part of a sweeping redevelopment of much of the city’s east bank riverfront — but what that new structure might be remains a question.
Details of the three proposals, submitted last week in response to a request for proposals for redeveloping the WTC site that was issued in January by the New Orleans Building Corp., were released Monday by the city. The RFP said proposals could involve either demolishing or renovating the outmoded building. Previous proposals for reusing the building as a hotel all have come to naught.
The proposal, from the Tricentennial Consortium, calls for demolishing the WTC and erecting a Tricentennial Tower that would serve as a civic signature for New Orleans, similar to the Gateway Arch n St. Louis or the Sydney Opera House. What that tower would look like is uncertain, however. Architect Allen Eskew offered an image of a 400-foot tower that would have an observation deck at the top, but he cautioned that it was just “the first of hundreds if not thousands” of design studies for what could be built.
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