PiazzaD’Italia

the Piazza d’Italia in New Orleans, designed by Charles Moore, is one of the few icons of Postmodern architecture that isn’t a building, and is next in our summer season on Postmodernism. Both a memorial and a public space, the piazza is a manifestation of Moore’s ideas of an “inclusive“ architecture, which can speak to and be enjoyed by anyone. Moore’s design, however, immediately attracted both fans and detractors, and many saw his architectural populism as pure in 1978, the piazza was conceived as an urban redevelopment project and a memorial to the city’s Italian citizens – past and present. The contributions of the Italian community had been largely overshadowed by those of the French, Spanish, African and Native Americans, according to the Italian-American community leaders that commissioned the project. Moore took a highly pictorial approach to designing his urban plaza. Colonnades, arches and a bell tower are arranged in a curving formation around a fountain. The layers of structure