New Orleans Info
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:12 am Post subject: NEW ORLEANS TOURISM GUIDE / TOURISM IN NEW ORLEANS |
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NEW ORLEANS TOURISM GUIDE
The French Quarter
The Quarter was laid out in 1718 by a French royal engineer named Adrien de Pauger, and today it's a great anomaly in contemporary America. Almost all other American cities have torn down or gutted their historic centres, but thanks to a strict preservation policy, and despite the recent adversity (hardly the first time the Quarter was in jeopardy; it was nearly entirely destroyed by fire twice in the 1700s), the area looks almost exactly as it always has and is still the centre of town.
Aside from Bourbon Street, you will find the most bustling activity at Jackson Square, where musicians (some of whom are as good or better than any you might hear in a Chicago or New York City jazz club for an expensive cover charge), artists, fortunetellers, jugglers, and those peculiar "living statue" performance artists (a step below mime, and that's pretty pathetic) gather to sell their wares or entertain for change. Their numbers will only increase as time passes and many entertainers are able to return home again, or at least, so it is hoped. Royal Street is home to numerous pricey antiques shops, with other interesting stores on Chartres and Decatur streets and the cross streets between.
The closer you get to Esplanade Avenue and toward Rampart Street, the more residential the Quarter becomes, and buildings are entirely homes. Walk through these areas, peeping in through any open gate; surprises wait behind them in the form of graceful brick and flagstone-lined courtyards filled with foliage and bubbling fountains.
The Quarter is particularly pedestrian-friendly. The streets are laid out in an almost perfect rectangle, so it's nearly impossible to get lost. It's also so well traveled that it is nearly always safe, particularly in the central parts. Again, although the crime rate has fallen significantly since Katrina, and may well likely stay fairly low, as you get toward the fringes (especially near Rampart) and as night falls, you should exercise caution; stay in the more bustling parts and try not to walk alone.
Museums--You might be interested in the Germaine Wells Mardi Gras Museum at 813 Bienville St., on the second floor of Arnaud's restaurant (tel. 504/523-5433; fax 504/581-7908), where you'll find a private collection of Mardi Gras costumes and ball gowns dating from around 1910 to 1960. Admission is free, and the museum is open during restaurant hours.
Aquarium of the Americas
The world-class Audubon Institute's Aquarium of the Americas was one of the saddest of so many terrible Katrina stories. The facility had superb hurricane contingency plans, not to mention engineering that one only wishes was shared by the levee system, and consequently both building and fishy residents came through the initial storm beautifully. But as the days following the evacuation stretched out, generators failed, and most of its 10,000 fish died, breaking the hearts of not only the staff who worked so hard to keep their charges healthy and alive, but just about anyone who had ever visited this lovely place. Survivors include the popular otter pair, the penguins, the leafy and weedy sea dragons, and Midas, the 250-pound sea turtle.
Beauregard-Keyes House
This "raised cottage," with its Doric columns and handsome twin staircases, was built as a residence by a wealthy New Orleans auctioneer, Joseph Le Carpentier, in 1826. Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard lived in the house with several members of his family for 18 months between 1865 and 1867, and from 1944 until 1970 it was the residence of Frances Parkinson Keyes (pronounced Cause), who wrote many novels about the region. Mrs. Keyes left her home to a foundation, and the house, rear buildings, and garden are open to the public. The gift shop has a wide selection of her novels.
Gallier House Museum
James Gallier, Jr, designed and built the Gallier House Museum as his residence in 1857. Anne Rice fans will want to at least walk by -- this is the house she was thinking of when she described Louis and Lestat's New Orleans residence in Interview with the Vampire. Gallier and his father were leading New Orleans architects -- they designed the old French Opera House, the original St. Charles Exchange Hotel, Municipality Hall (now Gallier Hall), and the Pontalba Buildings. This carefully restored town house contains an early working bathroom, a passive ventilation system, and furnishings of the period. Leaders of local ghost tours swear that Gallier haunts the place. Look for seasonal special programs.
Hermann-Grima House
The 1831 Hermann-Grima House is a symmetrical Federal-style building (perhaps the first in the Quarter) that's very different from its French surroundings. The knowledgeable docents who give the regular tours make this a satisfactory stop at any time, but keep an eye out for the frequent special tours. At Halloween, for example, the house is draped in typical 1800s mourning, and the docents explain mourning customs. The tour of the house, which has been meticulously restored, is one of the city's more historically accurate offerings.
Historic New Orleans Collection-Museum/Research Center
The Historic New Orleans Collection's museum of local and regional history is almost hidden away within a complex of historic French Quarter buildings. The oldest, constructed in the late 18th century, was one of the few structures to escape the disastrous fire of 1794. These buildings were owned by the collection's founders, Gen. and Mrs. L. Kemper Williams. There are excellent tours of the Louisiana history galleries, which feature expertly preserved and displayed art, maps, and original documents like the transfer papers for the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The collection is owned and managed by a private foundation, not a governmental organisation, and therefore offers more historical perspective and artifacts than boosterism.
If you want to see another grandly restored French Quarter building, visit the Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St. (tel. 504/598-7171), which houses and displays the bulk of the collection's many thousands of items. Admission is free.
Madame John's Legacy
Madame John's Legacy, the second-oldest building in the Mississippi Valley (after the Ursuline Convent) and a rare example of Creole architecture, miraculously survived the 1794 fire. Built around 1788 on the foundations of an earlier home destroyed in the fire of that year, the house has had a number of owners and renters, but none of them were named John. Or even Madame. It acquired its moniker courtesy of author George Washington Cable, who used the house as a setting for his short story "Tite Poulette." The protagonist was a quadroon named Madame John after her lover, who willed this house to her.
Madame John's Legacy is closed as of this writing. The reopening is uncertain due to budgetary constraints following Hurricane Katrina.
Musée Conti (Wax Museum)
You might wonder about the advisability of a wax museum in a place as hot as New Orleans, but the Musée Conti is pretty neat -- and downright spooky in spots. A large section is devoted to a sketch of Louisiana legends (Andrew Jackson, Napoleon, Jean Lafitte, Marie Laveau, Huey Long, a Mardi Gras Indian, Louis Armstrong, and Pete Fountain) and historical episodes. The descriptions, especially of the historical scenes, are surprisingly informative and witty.
New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum
Some of the hard-core voodoo practitioners in town might scoff at the Voodoo Museum, and perhaps rightly so. It is largely designed for tourists, but it is also probably the best opportunity for tourists to get acquainted with the history and culture of voodoo. Don't expect high-quality, comprehensive exhibits -- the place is dark, dusty, and musty. There are occult objects from all over the globe plus some articles that allegedly belonged to the legendary Marie Laveau. Unless someone on staff talks you through it -- which they will, if you ask -- you might come away with more confusion than facts. Still, it's an adequate introduction -- and who wouldn't want to bring home a voodoo doll from here? There is generally a voodoo priestess on-site, giving readings and making personal gris-gris bags. Again, it's voodoo for tourists, but for most tourists, it's probably the right amount. (Don't confuse this place with the Marie Laveau House of Voodoo on Bourbon St.)
The museum can arrange psychic readings and visits to voodoo rituals if you want to delve deeper into the subject.
New Orleans Historical Pharmacy Museum
Founded in 1950, the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum is just what the name implies. In 1823, the first licensed pharmacist in the United States, Louis J. Dufilho, Jr, opened an apothecary shop here. The Creole-style town house doubled as his home, and he cultivated the herbs he needed for his medicines in the interior courtyard. Inside you'll find old apothecary bottles, voodoo potions, pill tile and suppository molds.
Old Absinthe House
The Old Absinthe House was built in 1806 by two Spaniards and is still owned by their descendants (who live in Spain and have nothing to do with running the place). The building now houses the Old Absinthe House bar and two restaurants, Tony Moran's and Pasta e Vino. The drink for which the building and bar were named is now outlawed in this country (it caused blindness and madness). But you can sip a legal libation in the business-card-covered bar and feel at one with the famous types who came before you, listed on a plaque outside: William Makepeace Thackeray, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, and Walt Whitman. Andrew Jackson and the Lafitte brothers plotted their desperate defense of New Orleans here in 1815.
The house was a speak-easy during Prohibition, and when federal officers closed it in 1924, the interior was mysteriously stripped of its antique fixtures -- including the long marble-topped bar and the old water dripper that was used to infuse water into the absinthe. Just as mysteriously, they all reappeared down the street at a corner establishment called, oddly enough, the Old Absinthe House Bar (400 Bourbon St.). The latter closed, and a neon-bedecked daiquiri shack opened in its stead. Needless to say, the fixtures are nowhere in sight -- though rumour has it some original fixtures have turned up in the restaurant housed in the back of this bar!
Old Ursuline Convent
Forget tales of America being founded by brawny, brave, tough guys in buckskin and beards. The real pioneers -- at least, in Louisiana -- were well-educated French women clad in 40 pounds of black wool robes. That's right; you don't know tough until you know the Ursuline nuns, and this city would have been a very different place without them.
The Sisters of Ursula came to the mudhole that was New Orleans in 1727 after enduring a journey that several times nearly saw them lost at sea or to pirates or disease. Once in town, they provided the first decent medical care (saving countless lives) and later founded the first local school and orphanage for girls. They also helped raise girls shipped over from France as marriage material for local men, teaching the girls homemaking of the most exacting sort.
The convent dates from 1752 (the Sisters moved uptown in 1824, where they remain to this day), and it is the oldest building in the Mississippi River Valley and the only surviving building from the French Colonial period in the United States. Unfortunately, docents' histories ramble all over the place, rarely painting the full, thrilling picture of these extraordinary ladies to whom the city owes so much.
Our Lady of Guadeloupe Chapel--International Shrine of St. Jude
This is known as the "funeral chapel." It was erected (in 1826) conveniently near St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, specifically for funeral services, so as not to spread disease through the Quarter. It's visited for three reasons: the catacomb-like devotional chapel with plaques thanking the Virgin Mary for favours granted, the gift shop full of religious medals including a number of obscure saints, and the statue of St. Expedite. He got his name, according to legend, when his crate arrived with no identification other than the word expedite stamped on the outside. Now he's the saint you pray to when you want things in a hurry! Expedite has his cults in France and Spain and is also popular among the voodoo folks. He's just inside the door on the right.
St. Louis Cathedral
The St. Louis Cathedral prides itself on being the oldest continuously active cathedral in the United States. What usually doesn't get mentioned is that it is also one of the ugliest. The outside is all right, but the rather grim interior wouldn't give even a minor European church a run for its money.
Still, its history is impressive and somewhat dramatic. The cathedral formed the centre of the original settlement, and it is still the major landmark of the French Quarter. The first post-Katrina Mass, held on October 2, 2005 and presided over by the Archbishop of New Orleans, was a deeply moving affair attended by hundreds of locals. This is the third building to stand on this spot. A hurricane destroyed the first in 1722. On Good Friday 1788, the bells of its replacement were kept silent for religious reasons rather than ringing out the alarm for a fire -- which eventually went out of control and burned down more than 850 buildings, including the cathedral itself.
Rebuilt in 1794, the structure was remodeled and enlarged between 1845 and 1851 by J. N. B. de Pouilly. It's of Spanish design with a tower at each end and a higher central tower. The brick used in its construction was taken from the original town cemetery and was covered with stucco to protect the mortar from dampness. It's worth going in to catch one of the free docent tours; the knowledgeable guides are full of fun facts about the windows and murals and how the building nearly collapsed once from water table sinkage. Be sure to look at the slope of the floor; clever architectural design somehow keeps the building upright even as it continues to sink.
The 1850 House
James Gallier, Sr, and his son designed the historic Pontalba Buildings for the Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba. The rows of town houses on either side of Jackson Square were the largest private buildings in the country at the time. Legend has it that the Baroness, miffed that her friend Andrew Jackson wouldn't tip his hat to her, had his statue erected in the square, permanently doffing his chapeau toward her apartment on the top floor of the Upper Pontalba. It's probably not true, but it sounds like a good story.
Plans to reopen are uncertain due to state budget restrictions incurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
The Cabildo
Constructed from 1795 to 1799 as the Spanish government seat in New Orleans, The Cabildo was the site of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase transfer. It was severely damaged by fire in 1988 and closed for 5 years for reconstruction, which included total restoration of the roof by French artisans using 600-year-old timber-framing techniques. It is now the centre of the Louisiana State Museum's facilities in the French Quarter, and only sustained some window and shutter damage from the storm. It's located right on Jackson Square and is quite worth your time.
A multiroom exhibition informatively, entertainingly, and exhaustively traces the history of Louisiana from exploration through Reconstruction from a multicultural perspective. It covers all aspects of life, not just the obvious discussions of slavery and the battle for statehood. Topics include antebellum music, mourning and burial customs (a big deal when much of your population is succumbing to yellow fever), and immigrants and how they fared here. Throughout are fabulous artifacts, including Napoleon's death mask.
The Historic French Market
Legend has it that the site of the French Market was originally used by Native Americans as a bartering market. It began to grow into an official market in 1812. From around 1840 to 1870, it was part of Gallatin Street, an impossibly rough area so full of bars, drunken sailors, and criminals of every shape and size that it made Bourbon Street look like Disneyland. Today, it's a mixed bag (and not nearly as colourful as its past). The 24-hour Farmer's Market makes a fun amble as you admire everything from fresh produce to more tourist-oriented items like hot sauces and Cajun and Creole mixes. Snacks like gator on a stick (when was the last time you had that?) will amuse the kids. The Flea Market, just down from the Farmer's Market, is considered a must-shop place, but the reality is that the goods are kind of junky: T-shirts, jewelry, hats, crystals, toys, sunglasses, and that sort of thing. Still, some good deals can be had.
The Old U.S. Mint
The Old U.S. Mint, a Louisiana State Museum complex, houses exhibits on New Orleans jazz and the city's Carnival celebrations. The first exhibit contains a collection of pictures, musical instruments, and other artifacts connected with jazz greats -- Louis Armstrong's first trumpet is here. It tells of the development of the jazz tradition and New Orleans's place in that history. Across the hall is a stunning array of Carnival mementos, and there is usually one temporary exhibit on a special theme, such as the 2005 exhibit devoted to the history of beverages (no, not just booze, but a lot of that, to be sure) in New Orleans.
Unfortunately, the Mint was damaged during Katrina and is under extensive renovation.
The Presbytère
The Presbytère was planned as housing for the clergy but was never used for that purpose. Currently, it's part of the Louisiana State Museum, which has just turned the entire building into a smashing Mardi Gras museum. Five major themes (History, Masking, Parades, Balls, and the Courir du Mardi Gras) trace the history of this high-profile but frankly little-understood (outside of New Orleans) annual event. The exhibits are stunning and the attention to detail is startling, with everything from elaborate Mardi Gras Indian costumes to Rex Queen jewelry from the turn of the 20th century.
Outside the French Quarter
Uptown & the Garden District
If you can see just one thing outside the French Quarter, make it the Garden District. It has no significant historic buildings or important museums. It's simply beautiful. In some ways, even more so than the Quarter, this is New Orleans. Authors as diverse as Truman Capote and Anne Rice have been enchanted by its spell. Gorgeous homes of superb design stand quietly amid lush foliage, elegant but ever so slightly (or more) decayed. You can see why this is the setting for so many novels. Though a little battered around the edges post-Katrina, its beauty remains.
Across the River to Algiers Point
Algiers, annexed by New Orleans in 1870, stretches along the western side of the Mississippi River and is easily accessible via the free ferry that runs from the base of Canal Street. Do note that the ferry is one of New Orleans's best-kept secrets. It's a great way to get out onto the river and see the skyline. With such easy access (a ferry leaves every 15-20 min.), who knows why the Point hasn't been better assimilated into the larger city, but it hasn't. Though it's only about a quarter-mile across the river from the French Quarter, it still has the feel of an undisturbed turn-of-the-20th-century suburb.
The last ferry returns at around 11:15pm, but be sure to check the schedule before you set out, just in case.
St. John's Bayou & Lake Pontchartrain
St. John's Bayou is a body of water that originally extended from the outskirts of New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain, and it's one of the most important reasons New Orleans is where it is today. Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, was commissioned to establish a settlement in Louisiana that would both make money and protect French holdings in the New World from British expansion. Bienville chose the spot where New Orleans now sits because he recognised the strategic importance of "back-door" access to the Gulf of Mexico provided by the bayou's linkage to the lake. Boats could enter the lake from the Gulf and then follow the bayou until they were within easy portage distance of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Area Native American tribes had used this route for years.
The early path from the city to the bayou is today's Bayou Road, an extension of Governor Nicholls Street in the French Quarter. Modern-day Gentilly Boulevard, which crosses the bayou, was another Native American trail.
New Orleans grew and prospered, and the bayou became a suburb as planters moved out along its shores. In the early 1800s, a canal was dug to connect the waterway with the city, reaching a basin at the edge of Congo Square. The basin became a popular recreation area with fine restaurants and dance halls (as well as meeting places for voodoo practitioners). Gradually, New Orleans reached beyond the French Quarter and enveloped the whole area.
The canal is gone, filled in long ago, and the bayou is a meek re-creation of itself, though it did overflow its banks during the post-Katrina flooding. It is no longer navigable (even if it were, bridges were built too low to permit the passage of boats of any size), but residents still prize their waterfront sites, and rowboats and sailboats make use of the bayou's surface. It's one of the prettiest areas of New Orleans, full of the old houses (most of which survived the flooding) tourists love to marvel at but without the hustle, bustle, and confusion of more high-profile locations.
Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World
Few cities can boast a thriving float-making industry. New Orleans can, and no float maker thrives more than Blaine Kern, who makes more than three-quarters of the floats used by the various krewes every Carnival season. Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World offers tours of its collection of float sculptures and its studios, where you can see floats being made year-round. (Likely with new thrilling details about working overtime to get floats ready for Mardi Gras 2006, and tales of damaged floats.) Visitors see sculptors at work, doing everything from making small "sketches" of the figures to creating and painting the enormous sculptures that adorn Mardi Gras floats each year. You can even try on some heavily bejeweled and dazzling costumes (definitely bring your camera!).
Confederate Memorial Museum
Not far from the French Quarter, the Confederate Museum was established in 1891 and currently houses the second-largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in the country. It opened so soon after the end of the war that many of the donated items are in excellent condition. Among these are 125 battle flags, 50 Confederate uniforms, guns, swords, photographs, and oil paintings. You'll see personal effects of Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard and Confederate president Jefferson Davis (including his evening clothes), and part of Robert E. Lee's silver camp service. It's somewhat cluttered and not that well laid out -- for the most part, only buffs will find much of interest here, though they can have remarkable temporary exhibitions like a most moving one on Jefferson Davis's youngest daughter, Winnie.
Contemporary Arts Center
Redesigned in the early 1990s to much critical applause, the Contemporary Arts Center is a main anchor of the city's young arts district (once the city's old Warehouse District, it's now home to a handful of leading local galleries). Over the past 2 decades, the centre has consistently exhibited influential and groundbreaking work by regional, national and international artists in various mediums.
Degas House
Legendary French Impressionist Edgar Degas felt very tender toward New Orleans; his mother and grandmother were born here, and he spent several months in 1872 and 1873 visiting his brother at this house. It was a trip that resulted in a number of paintings, and this is the only residence or studio associated with Degas anywhere in the world that is open to the public. One of his paintings showed the garden of the house behind his brother's. His brother liked that view, too; he later ran off with the wife of the judge who lived there. His wife and children later took back her maiden name, Musson. The Musson home, as it is formally known, was erected in 1854 and has since been sliced in two and redone in an Italianate manner. Both buildings have been restored and are open to the public. Both also house a very nice (though fairly humble) B&B setup.
Gallier Hall
This impressive Greek Revival building was the inspiration of James Gallier, Sr. Erected between 1845 and 1853, it served as City Hall for just over a century and has been the site of many important events in the city's history. Several important figures lay in state in Gallier Hall, including Jefferson Davis and General Beauregard. More than 5,000 mourners came to Gallier Hall on July 14, 2001, to pay their respects to the flamboyant R&B legend Ernie K-Doe, who was laid out in a white costume and a silver crown and delivered to his final resting place in a big, brassy jazz procession.
Jackson Barracks and Military Museum
On an extension of Rampart Street downriver from the French Quarter is this series of fine old brick buildings with white columns. They were built in 1834 and 1835 for troops who were stationed at the river forts. Some say Andrew Jackson, who never quite trusted New Orleans Creoles, planned the barracks to be as secure against attack from the city as from outside forces. The barracks now serve as headquarters for the Louisiana National Guard, and there's an extensive military museum in the old powder magazine.
National D-Day Museum
Opened on D-day, June 6, 2000, this is the creation of the late best-selling author (and Saving Private Ryan consultant) Stephen Ambrose, and it is the only museum of its kind in the country. It tells the story of all 19 U.S. amphibious operations worldwide on that fateful day of June 6, 1944. A rich collection of artifacts (including some British Spitfire airplanes) coupled with top-of-the-line educational materials makes this new museum one of the highlights of New Orleans.
A panorama allows visitors to see just what it was like on those notorious beaches. There is also a copy of Eisenhower's contingency speech, in which he planned to apologize to the country for the failure of D-day -- thankfully, it was a speech that was never needed.
New Orleans Museum of Art
Often called NOMA, this museum is located in an idyllic section of City Park. The front portion of the museum is the original large, imposing neoclassical building ("sufficiently modified to give a subtropical appearance," said the architect Samuel Marx); the rear portion is a striking contrast of curves and contemporary styles.
The museum opened in 1911 after a gift to the City Park Commission from Isaac Delgado, a sugar broker and Jamaican immigrant. During the hurricane, in a great show of dedication to the place, security staff and their families stayed in the museum, leaving only when the National Guard forced them to evacuate. Today, it houses a 40,000-piece collection including pre-Columbian and Native American ethnographic art; 16th- through 20th-century European paintings; Early American art; Asian art; and one of the six largest decorative glass collections in the United States.
The changing exhibits frequently have regional resonance, such as the one devoted to religious art and objects collected from local churches. The museum recently opened the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 5 acres of gardens, grass, and walkways that spotlight 50 modern sculptures by artists such as Henry Moore, Gaston Lachaise, Elizabeth Frink, George Segal, and others. The garden, which lost only one piece to the storm (the artist has already repaired it) has quickly become a New Orleans cultural highlight and is open Thursday to Sunday 10am to 5pm, with free admission.
Pitot House
The Pitot House is a typical West Indies-style plantation home, restored and furnished with early-19th-century Louisiana and American antiques. Dating from 1799, it originally stood where the nearby modern Catholic school is. In 1810, it became the home of James Pitot, the first mayor of incorporated New Orleans (he served from 1804-05). Tours are usually given by a most knowledgeable docent and are surprisingly interesting and informative.
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art
A significant addition to the New Orleans cultural scene, this may well be the premier collection of Southern art in the United States. "May be" because even though the building is dazzling, it is built around an atrium that takes up a great deal of space that could be devoted to art. It does make for a dramatic interior (nothing compared to the Guggenheim's spiral, of course), but the fear is that certain exhibits may get short shrift and the breadth and range of Southern artistry may be limited to outsider folk artists or photographers who specialise in old bluesmen. But on the whole, the facility is wonderful, the artists are impressive, and the graphics are well designed. Ultimately, it's worth a stop.
The Superdome
Completed in 1975 (at a cost of around $180 million), The Superdome is a landmark civic structure that the world will never look at the same again. When it was proposed as a shelter during Katrina, that suggestion was intended as the last resort for those who simply had no other evacuation choice. As such, adequate plans were not in place, and when tens of thousands of refugees came or were brought there, within 24 hours it had turned into hell on earth. Along with the Convention Center, it became a symbol of suffering, neglect, and despair, as people were trapped without sufficient food, water, medical care, or, it seemed, hope.
It's hard to imagine enjoying a football game there again, but at press time, considerable effort was going into restoring the place in time for the generally hapless Saints team's 2006-07 season. Here are its stats: it's a 27-story windowless building with a seating capacity of 76,000 and a computerized climate-control system that uses more than 9,000 tons of equipment. It's one of the largest buildings in the world in diameter (680 ft.), and its grounds cover some 13 acres. Inside, no posts obstruct the spectator's view of sporting events, be they football, baseball, or basketball, while movable partitions and seats allow the building to be configured for almost any event. Most people think of The Superdome as a sports centre only (the Super Bowl was held here again in 2002), but this flying saucer of a building plays host to conventions, balls, and big theatrical and musical productions. |
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