Celebrating the Carver Theater

Celebrating the Carver Theater

The Carver Theater, named after George Washington Carver, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1950, this state-of-the-art theater for African-Americans in New Orleans hosted bands, shows, and community events. In its heyday, the Theater was a magnificent building serving as a cultural center bringing people together. The Carver was retired as a movie theater in 1980. The theater sustained heavy water damage during Hurricane Katrina, Yet, the building was completely renovated by Perez and opened in 2014 after the $8 million renovation. #weareperez celebrating #blackhistorymonth

TODAY

Claiborne Avenue Civil Rights Memorial

Claiborne Avenue Civil Rights Memorial

Perez was on the design team for aesthetic and site/civil improvements (landscape, lighting, storm drainage) to a length of the 80-foot wide median along South Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, extending for a one mile stretch from Napoleon Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. One day during the design phase, Landscape Architect Brandon Adams was standing at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial on MLK Boulevard and noticed the list of 9 other individuals that had lost their lives as a result of their involvement with the Civil Rights Movement.  At that time, Mr. Adams decided to propose at a community meeting that a design of a memorial for those nine leaders be included in the project. The final design included a curvilinear walkway, lined with Date Palm trees, leading from the existing Martin Luther King Jr. memorial to a new memorial structure dedicated to the nine Civil Rights advocates. The memorial designed by Brandon Adams of Perez contains text describing the life of each person and their contributions inscribed in precast concrete panels on the ground level under a concrete and steel structure. The project was completed in 2014. Thanks to the design team lead All South Consulting Engineers, LLC; New Orleans Department of Public Works; New Orleans Regional Planning Commission; US Army Corps of Engineers; and Landscape Architects Brandon Adams, Johanna Leibe, Charlotte Cox.

Gambit Article on the Memorial

Bojangles Park of Harlem

Bojangles Park of Harlem

“Perez is proud to be associated with Brandon Adams PLA, the Landscape Architect that designed the renovation of the Bojangles Park in Harlem for the NYC Parks and Recreation back in 1992. The renovated park was published in Landscape Architecture Magazine soon after completion. The photographic mural of Bill Bojangles Robinson, designed by Mr. Adams, has been designated a New York City Monument. The Park was recently refurbished, with the refurbishment design done in-house by the NYC Parks & Recreation. They did not change much of Brandon’s original design. The ribbon-cutting happened on December 11, 2020.  The following is a link to an article on the renovation and opening. #blackhistorymonth #weareperez

NOMA Louisiana celebrates Mr. Lonnie Hewitt, Jr.

NOMA Louisiana celebrates Mr. Lonnie Hewitt, Jr.

NOMA Louisiana celebrates the legacy and mourns the loss, of one of our chapter’s founders and longest-standing supporters. Mr. Lonnie Hewitt, Jr. last week passed away at the age of 75 due to complications of COVID-19.

Born in New Orleans in 1946, Hewitt attended L.B. Landry High School in Algiers, graduating in 1964, and the Southern University School of Architecture in Baton Rouge, graduating in 1969. In 1978, he partnered with James Washington to form Hewitt-Washington and Associates, a partnership whose architectural and planning work can be found throughout the city of New Orleans and south Louisiana. The firm’s bold postmodern buildings house businesses and civic institutions like public schools, libraries, churches, and the Regional Transit Authority, while its contributions to planning projects like the 1984 World’s Fair, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, and the Moonwalk enhanced New Orleans’ civic realm. Mr. Hewitt was a mentor to dozens of minority architects, including many past and present members of NOMA Louisiana, and a passionate advocate for minority representation in his field.  

A more complete account of Mr. Hewitt’s life and legacies can be found in these obituaries published in the Times-Picayune Advocate and in New Orleans CityBusiness. Mr. Hewitt’s family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations in his memory be made to NOMA Louisiana Project Pipeline