New Orleans Observed: Drawings and Observations of America's Most Foreign City
Amid the chaotic cacophony of the information age, our universities occasionally produce gems that enlighten and inspire us. The School of Architecture at Tulane University recently published one such tiny jewel. Errol Barron s New Orleans Observed: Drawings and Observations of America s Most Foreign City is a small book that can help us to better experience the contrarian embrace from one of the most-loved cities in North America. This sketchbook-proportioned paperback operates on at least three levels. In its basic presence, it s an insider s visual guidebook to New Orleans. The 124 pages of watercolor sketches were done in 2009 while Tulane professor Barron was on sabbatical, a recording of his long-evolved architectural and analytical views of our last intact 18th-century city [, one] that is both easy to talk about, and hard to describe. Most of the watercolors also contain curious little margin diagrams that capture the essence of the technical or architectural images on the page, an elegantly simple method of explaining one of our most complex, improbable cities. Over 20 of the sketches explore delightful porches and stoops in various neighborhoods, places where the public meets the private. The first nine sketches explain the peculiar topography and evolution of this island city. The last few are of memorable urban characters, ranging from a Jazz Fest dancer to the Lucky Dog man. My greatest enjoyment comes from casually leafing through it, letting an image catch my eye, and then devouring all the tidbits of beauty and information scattered across the pages. At its next level, the book is a personal architectural diary Barron has generously chosen to share with us. Like Benjamin Latrobe 191 years before him, he is fascinated by the cultural and sensorial flavors of what he calls America s most foreign city. Barron is known in Alabama through his firm s design of St. James Episcopal Church in Fairhope, recipient of a national AIA design award in 1995. He is a virtuoso performer, both in his practice and in his art. By publishing his dense diary in this most accessible and affordable format, he shares the inspirations that have compelled him to patiently teach the timeless importance of Scale, Proportion and Beauty to hundreds of architecture students during his four-decade tenure at Tulane. At its most subtle level (and maybe its most important), the book is an homage to the lost art of patient observation. It is also a gentle reminder about the limits of modernity. Errol Barron has now spent 38 years in his practice and professorship in New Orleans, delightfully grounded in a city and university that he loves. During a four-month period in 2009, he would spend several hours a day riding around the flat city on his bike, see something that caught my eye, dismount and begin sketching. This discernment usually evolved into a watercolor made from the loose chips of pigment in his pocket watercolor set, mixed with the concocted, aromatic city water. New Orleans Observed is the record of these journeys, an encouragement to wander, slow down one s pace and look closely. This long, slow view of our lives is the opposite of the hasty world that the bloggers and tweeters now propose that we should inhabit. Who should buy this curious little book? Those who love New Orleans, artists, amateur sketchers, architects, historians, travel buffs and any of us who are looking for an alternative to the transient templates offered by our popular culture. It is a long view well worth the time --Press Register Correspondent