Riversphere

Etched into the national consciousness, the Mississippi River winds through the history of the land, the people and the culture of America.

United in their respect and fascination with the great waterway, a diverse group of biologists, writers and historians invited BMD to work on a unique collaboration: conceive of a location, a situation, a place, an experience that connects the river to its legacy.

A legacy that connects to trade. To commerce. To legend. To agriculture. To tourism. To politics. To education. To the environment. And emphatically, to the creation and survival of the city of New Orleans, where it will reside.

Carried out in close collaboration with partners from Tulane and Xavier Universities, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the City of New Orleans, BMD began to translate that legacy into a conceptual framework and programming model: a living museum with diverse and interlocking components.

Moving beyond the traditional models of gallery or university, the core of the project is conceived as a multi-nodal complex for active, participatory engagement. Like a village, multiple facilities will work independently and in combination to generate a lively, layered mixture of activities open to the general public, students and specialists according to interest and need.

Visitors will first enter a “Hall of Waters,” a main lobby filled with permanent and rotating exhibitions and community space. Surrounding and adjacent to the hall are myriad “Project Studios,” where scholars will conduct research in a number of disciplines in full view with visitors.

Studios will be devoted to river and coastal studies, human and ecological health, food culture, GIS and mapping, river turbines for electrical production, polymer extrusion for constructing pilings out of recycled plastics, and other sustainable efforts, as well as artist studios, operating so that visitors, scientists, artists, and students again will circulate and interact.

As a center for educational programming, exhibition, research and communications, it will deliver experiences, understanding and a celebration of the Mississippi River. The ambition of such an organizational plan is to build a center that is responsive, efficient, task-oriented, flowing, and able to change and evolve over time.

A place dedicated to art, science and technology, about rivers, for river communities, on the Big River.