Rest Note
Location: New Orleans, LA
Competition: ASLA Emerging Professionals
Year: 2025
Once a towering pedestal for Robert E. Lee, the 50-foot marble column in Harmony Circle stood as a symbol of division and oppression. Rest Note transforms this relic into a civic instrument of healing, reflection, and community gathering. Drawing inspiration from music theory, particularly the rest note—a pause within a composition that creates space for resonance and change—the project reimagines the column not as a monument to power but as a foundation for collective harmony. The marble is cut into one-foot segments and reassembled as a curved retaining wall around a sloped lawn and stage. This act physically dismantles the symbol of white supremacy and grounds it, creating a place where people can sit, speak, and perform together.
Smart and
safe streets
Easy access to the new park
Reducing vehicular routes around the traffic circle calms traffic, shortens pedestrian crossings, and creates more continuous sidewalks thus improving safety and walkability for all park visitors.
Native
ecologies
Two local planting strategies, one cohesive sense of place
The park’s planting design follows two native ecologies: The Bald Cypress Floodplain Forest that naturally manages on-site stormwater through wetland plantings, and a Longleaf Pine Flatwoods community that defines and shelters the bosque plaza, creating an intimate, shaded gathering space.
People
Practice
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