JAZZ & HERITAGE CENTER
Restoring jazz education and performance to the Treme to grow the next generation of New Orleans musicians
After a long hiatus from the Treme, the neighborhood in New Orleans where jazz was born, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation opened the George & Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center to give a new permanent home to its youth education programs and provide a multipurpose performance venue for national headliners and community organizations alike.
The design for this new performance space is inspired by the inside of a piano. Aside from the rich warmth of an all-wood interior and a porous screened ceiling, the room is tunable: by opening and closing wall panels, musicians can drastically change reflectance and absorption according to the type of performance. The project included the renovation and expansion of a 10,000 SF historic set of townhouses-turned-funeral home along Rampart Street.
