Keynote Lecture: Jonathan Tate, OJT Architects

Panel Discussion: Jonathan Tate and Tulane School of Architecture professors Wendy Hillis and Richard Campanella.

The idea to theme the colloquium around the identity of New Orleans grew out of the Tulane School of Architecture students’ experience when learning to design contemporary buildings in one of the oldest American cities. The board of the TSA Grad Government noticed this contrast represented in Instagram hashtags such as #neworleansarchitecture, #nola300, etc. The students chose to examine and analyze Google Images the same way they had examined Instagram; the results were similar and more easily documentable.

Overall, the data confirmed the notion that New Orleans is mostly represented by traditional buildings on Google Images. An overwhelming majority of the search results came from tourism websites. Tourism websites, generally, do not promote New Orleans contemporary architecture as a destination. New Orleans modern architecture remains underrepresented online. The vocabulary used to talk about buildings is important. The results vary greatly between “architecture” and the more colloquial “buildings.”

The Colloquium will provide an opportunity to discuss this topic among attendees and Keynote Lecturer Jonathan Tate, of New Orleans-based OJT Architects, and Tulane School of Architecture professors Wendy Hillis and Richard Campanella.

This event is free and open to the public. Questions? Contact architecture@tulane.edu.