Piazza d'Italia and Postmodern Gateway

Why is it significant?

Begin your exploration of New Orleans' Warehouse and Arts District at the whimsical, color-saturated monument of Piazza d'Italia on Poydras Street.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Begin your exploration of New Orleans' Warehouse and Arts District at the whimsical, color-saturated monument of Piazza d'Italia on Poydras Street. Commissioned in 1976 and unveiled in 1978 to celebrate the immense cultural contributions of the city's Sicilian immigrant community, this extraordinary public plaza was designed by renowned American architect Charles Moore in collaboration with August Perez and Associates, instantly becoming a worldwide manifesto of Postmodern architecture.

Look at the playful classical columns: Moore deconstructed ancient Greco-Roman orders, creating vibrant concentric colonnades that incorporate contemporary neon tube lighting, polished stainless steel capitals, and flowing water that jets directly out of oversized acanthus leaves.

At the center of the circular plaza, a cobblestone relief map of the Italian peninsula emerges from a shallow reflecting pool, with the island of Sicily positioned right at the bullseye. New Orleans received more Sicilian immigrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries than any other southern port; thousands settled in the lower French Quarter and Warehouse District, working as dock laborers, citrus farmers, and grocers, inventing iconic culinary institutions like the muffuletta sandwich at Central Grocery. Moore added his own playful touch: two marble water spouts carved in his own likeness spewing streams of water into the pool. Surrounding the plaza, whimsical inscriptions in Latin proclaim the gratitude of the citizens of New Orleans to the Italian community, while colorful banded architraves frame views of modern office towers. After falling into neglect in the 1990s, the plaza underwent a meticulous municipal restoration in 2004, returning its bright ochre, vermilion, and cobalt arches to pristine glory beneath downtown skyscrapers.

Standing in the spray of this neon-trimmed classical wonderland, you experience the witty, theatrical brilliance of postmodern design celebrating immigrant pride. It is an unforgettable public monument unlike anything else in the American urban landscape.

Walk west along Poydras Street toward the historic civic green of Lafayette Square.