Graduate students studying architecture, real estate, and historic preservation at Tulane School of Architecture (TuSA) will soon have a new space to call home in the vibrant Central Business District of New Orleans.
The school is taking over 25,000 square feet of classrooms, studios, offices, and meeting space on the fourth and second floors of NOCHI (also home of the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute), located at 725 Howard Avenue.
"We are excited to welcome everyone to the NOCHI building as the latest addition to TuSA’s facilities and the new home of our graduate school," said Iñaki Alday, Dean and Koch Chair in Architecture at TuSA. "The space has great flexibility and enables us to enhance our students’ experience and foster collaboration between programs. We are also now next to the Ogden Museum of Art, on the St. Charles public transportation corridor, and within walking distance to numerous historic and modern architectural landmarks."
This fall, students in the Master of Science in Historic Preservation program set up a studio and began holding classes in the space. By Spring 2023, the school anticipates that most TuSA graduate students will be located in the building, as well.
Previously, the school was housed solely in the historic Richardson Memorial Hall on Tulane’s uptown campus. Richardson Memorial Hall is currently undergoing a comprehensive renovation, led by New Orleans-based Trapolin-Peer Architects, and classes have been relocated to buildings on campus and in temporary pavilions on Tulane's Newcomb Quad, the capacity of which has not been enough for the exceptionally fast growth of the school.
TuSA's student population has nearly doubled in recent years, from 283 declared undergraduate and graduate students in 2019 to 515 declared students in 2022. The school also has hired numerous faculty in recent years and will soon undergo more faculty searches.
Recently the opportunity arose to sublease the NOCHI space from Tulane’s A.B. Freeman Business School, which started using the space in 2019, and Dean Alday seized the opportunity to expand into downtown.
"Our school is undergoing a massive transformation," Alday said. "Not only is our school’s home undergoing an incredible renovation, we are also growing our programs and numbers of students and faculty. The additional space at NOCHI will help us train future professionals to transform the world through the practices of architecture, urbanism, and preservation."
The NOCHI building was originally built to be an art studio, designed by New Orleans architect Ron Filson, who served as dean at Tulane School of Architecture from 1980-1992 and recently passed away. Later when NOCHI occupied the building, the well-regarded firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple redesigned it as a mixed-use space for education.
The two floors of NOCHI that will house the Tulane School of Architecture graduate programs have four state-of-the-art classrooms—including two tiered classrooms and two flat classrooms—with a combined seating capacity of more than 200 students. It will perform as a co-working hub with breakout spaces, two conference rooms, 25 spaces for group work and offices, along with lounge and reception areas. The facility has Tulane ID-controlled entry and is accessible to faculty and students after hours and on weekends.
