U.S. Unveils Plan for Jazz Park
WWOZ is expected to get new building

By Lill LeGardeur
From the Times Picayune Saturday, January 27, 2001, Section B, Page 3

WWOZ Radio would get a new home and the National Park Service would overhaul several historic buildings in Armstrong Park to create a visitor center, a performance venue and a jazz resource center under a plan presented this week for the long-delayed New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park.

After years of planning by the Park Service, Mayor Marc Morial signed a lease in August 1999 giving the federal agency control of a complex of buildings on the St. Philip Street side of city-owned Armstrong Park.

Since then, the Park Service has been working on a plan to give physical presence to the park, which was officially created in 1994 but so far has existed mostly on paper.

Gayle Hazelwood, superintendent of the park, presented the plan Wednesday to the New Orleans Jazz Commission at the New Orleans African American Museum in Tremé and Thursday to the Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates organization at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel.

The plan includes a visitor center oriented toward North Rampart Street, which Hazelwood described as a gateway to the park. Visitors would enter the park through a new gate and cross the lagoon to reach the building, a 1948 reconstruction of a historic firehouse.

From the visitor center, they would be directed to a cluster of buildings housing the performance hall, an education center, administrative offices, security building and a resource center directing visitors to other local jazz landmarks and exhibits. The center also would showcase oral histories of New Orleans musicians.

Under the plan, WWOZ would be responsible for building itself a new 6,000-square- foot building at an estimated cost of $1.35 million. The nonprofit community station's current building is one of those the city leased to the Park Service. General Manager David Freedman said he hopes to raise the necessary money within 18 months.

People attending the Thursday meeting were receptive to the WWOZ plans, which include a space for live performances and a glassed-in broadcast booth, which would let park visitors watch the station's announcer’s while listening to its array of local music programs on outside speakers.

But the plan to open Armstrong Park’s St. Phillip Street gates during operating hours drew some criticism. "I hate to be politically incorrect," said Peggy Whitty Tucker, an Esplanade Ridge Avenue resident, "but are you aware of how dangerous that area is, crime statistics-, wise?"

Hazelwood said the park’s bad reputation dates to a murder 12 years ago and is un-deserved. "I don't think that, statistics-wise, it’s more dangerous than other urban areas," she said.

But Hazelwood said she has insisted on having a security building in the park and urged community members to help "hold the city's foot to the fire on providing adequate police coverage around the park.

The jazz park plan was developed through a series of sessions sponsored by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects under the direction of architect Creed Brierre. Participants included Tulane School of Architect students, National Park Service staff members, nearby residents and representatives of the City's Parks and Parkways Department. Hazelwood said that the Park Service made sure that the plan honors Tremé historic street grid, much of which was destroyed when Armstrong Park was created.

The plan identifies the intersection of St. Claude and Dumaine streets, a traditional meeting place for Mardi Gras Indians now obscured by the park, as a focal point to be marked with a monument.

Tremé resident Raymond Young, vice president of the Esplanade Ridge and Tremé Civic Association, said later he had not seen the plans and suggested that Hazelwood present them at his group’s next meeting.