The NOLA East Bank project is one of the most promising major redevelopment sites on the City of New Orleans’ Riverfront. The existing three main buildings represent a concentrated arrangement of building mass at the intersection of the Industrial Canal and the Mississippi River. The size of the existing buildings, the complexity of the proposed scope and program, and the interface of the site with existing neighborhoods and industrial uses demanded a thorough and thoughtful approach.

BNIM teamed with Urban Focus Louisiana LLC and City Craft Ventures to design a strong, market-driven, incremental development approach to the site. The solution will require more than just the renovation and reprogramming of the three major buildings. It will require an investment in urban infrastructure that will unlock the site by reconnecting it to the surrounding streets and neighborhoods. These investments can change the site from a dead-end to an activity center embedded in the neighborhoods and connected on a city-wide scale.

The team’s solution includes the following strategies:
- Weave the military complex footprint back into the fabric of the Bywater neighborhood.
- Restore the Public Belt Railroad corridor to its original alignment. The realignment will remove significant barriers to site connectivity, creating an opportunity to fully integrate into the surrounding neighborhood.
- Reintegrate the neighborhood fragments north of the main buildings made developable by the railroad realignment.
- Return Poland Avenue to its original historical alignment and encourage vibrant, mixed land use along the thoroughfare.
- Capitalize on City infrastructure investments by connecting to Crescent Park and the planned pedestrian improvements on the St. Claude Bridge.
- Celebrate the industrial legacy of New Orleans and encourage continued production, distribution, and future docking for the Emergency Response Center to be housed within the NSAEB development.
- Appropriately honor Bywater Point as a passive and completely accessible public space.
- Make the site an interface between the city and the river, and an urban node by creating greater accessibility and porosity through a multi-modal transportation strategy that integrates streetscape improvements, the City’s Bicycle Master Plan, potential streetcar extensions, and other City infrastructure investments.
- Identify and build on the development’s adjacency to a multitude of sites that hold civic, social and cultural importance, including the Homer A. Plessy Site, the historic portage road, the Vieux Carré and Faubourg Marigny.