Not the Municipal Auditorium

Reportedly, sources within the Cantrell Administration are saying that the Mayor plans to proceed with her proposal to convert the Municipal Auditorium in Armstrong Park into a new City Hall.

For the Mayor, there are 36.5 million reasons to do so. That’s the dollar amount that FEMA has allocated for the reconstruction of the 1930s era performance hall. There’s also the public green space around, the grand granite façade, and the fact that the city already owns the property.

Yet, before an office tower rises from within-and-above the Katrina-devastated remains of Mardi Gras’ most famous auditorium, as well as divert $36.5 million from the reconstruction of an artistic centre to build a potential 12 story mini-skyscraper as consultants recommend —which would literally overshadow the historic Vieux Carre and Faubourg Treme — more evidence is needed. Does this constitute the best alternative for the Municipal Auditorium, especially as the Civil Court Judiciary refuses to concede their millions in construction funds for this purpose?

The judges of the Orleans Parish Civil Court strongly object to moving so far away from the Poydras Street corridor of law firms, part of the reason Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s proposal to convert Charity Hospital into the new City Hall was dead almost as soon as it was proposed. This ranks as more than an academic objection; the Civil Judiciary yields real financial power in this debate. Over a decade ago, the Louisiana Supreme Court Judicial Committee allowed the Orleans CDC to raise its filing fees to garner money for a new courthouse. Along with money put aside by the Orleans Parish Assessor’s Office, the CDC Judiciary and Erroll Williams have saved $21 million in fees earmarked for a new home. It’s a difficult, though not an insurmountable argument, to gain $36.5 million and lose $21 million.

The judges have proposed constructing a joint complex with the City on the former State Supreme Court property at Duncan Plaza, behind the current City Hall, facing the park. Of course, Mayor Cantrell points out, accurately, that Orleans Parish does not own the land. It is state property, with a price tag of $3 million to purchase. However, there is a viable option to trade the current unused city street under which the Superdome’s “Champions Square” sits for the empty state land, hardly an unrealistic proposal according to sources in Baton Rouge.

The Mayor’s contention that Orleans needs a new City Hall is equally hard to dismiss. The current complex is not only falling apart, but just to meet health and safety standards would need over $100 million in gutting and asbestos remediation. And, the refashioned City Hall still would be too small to house the satellite city offices that currently cost the General Fund $1 million in yearly off-premises rent. Merely finding temporary housing for city departments whilst undergoing a major reconstruction would cost over $12 million. Moreover, even the most ardent of historic preservationists find little that is architecturally redeeming about the 1950s office building. The current City Hall stands as a depressing citadel for a cultural metropolis such as ours. The Mayor is right. Better to build somewhere else.

A team of consultants comprised of the Pace Group LLC, an engineering firm: Woodward Design+Build, a construction company; and Gensler, an architecture and design firm, analyzed what kind of space the city needs for its administrative center, and how it should be laid out. Their report leans heavily toward building a new, 12-story, 445,000-square-foot City Hall. While the Municipal Auditorium is huge, it is not that big. Constructing a City Complex within would literally raise the roof of the 89-year-old building considerably.

And, not cheaply. The cost of building within the Armstrong Park Music Hall could amount to more than the $171 million proposed cost of a new City Tower. Quickly, the $36.5 million windfall diminishes, and there is no real indication that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would allow the monies to be used for a purpose other than reconstructing a performance venue.

Even if FEMA officials would agree to concede the funds, New Orleans needs the Municipal Auditorium. We do not have a performance venue of its size. At slightly less than 8000 seats, it stands as the perfect gathering place between the Mahalia Jackson and Saenger Theatres (at 2100 and 2600 seats, respectively) and the 18,000 people who can be usually accommodated within the Smoothie King Center. A restored Municipal Auditorium could also serve as a linchpin of a true “Broadway South” cluster, large enough to support the $100,000+ dollar live productions sizable enough to qualify for the state live performance tax credits (roughly equivalent to the film tax credits).

The $36.5 million could provide the down payment to attract a national partnership to transform the Municipal Auditorium into a first class performance venue. New Orleans birthed Opera in North America, with a permanent company here even before the formation of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The French Opera House was world renown.

Less than two decades ago, the Grammy Hall of Fame was nearly constructed in New Orleans, and now the Board of the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences search for regional museums and performance space with which to partner. Our Auditorium would suit their needs perfectly. Literally and figuratively. After all, the Municipal Auditorium sits equidistant from the U.S. birthplace of Opera and J&M Recording Studios, where Cosimo Matassa taped the first Rock & Roll song in 1947. Imagine a national partnership that would rebrand the Municipal Auditorium into a “Creole French Opera House” which contained a Grammy or other national grade music museum and foundation along with a world-class music space. Is not a gleaming musical citadel the kind of iconic landmark, which this city truly needs, even more than saving $3 million on a new City Hall?

Mayor Cantrell, convince us that we are wrong.

This article originally published in the November 18, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.