Municipal Auditorium still festers, despite renovation next door
Published: Wednesday, January 07, 2009, 9:55 PM Updated: Monday, October 12, 2009, 11:16 PM
As throngs of music lovers pour into the refurbished Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts tonight for the playhouse's first show since Hurricane Katrina, another once-grand, city-owned gathering space at Louis Armstrong Park will remain dark.
More than three years after the flood, the Morris F.X. Jeff Sr. Municipal Auditorium remains a ruined shell of the Italian Renaissance Revival structure that for decades played host to some of New Orleans' most important events, from operas and dance recitals to graduation ceremonies and Carnival balls. City officials shy away from suggesting when it might reopen.
Though the 6,000-seat auditorium sits on high ground in Treme, its basement, like the ground floor of the Mahalia Jackson Theater, flooded in Katrina, causing major damage to electrical and mechanical equipment, said Cynthia Sylvain-Lear, the city's deputy chief administrative officer. A retaining wall also buckled in the storm, allowing rain to pour in through the roof, she said.
"There was water from below and water from above, " Sylvain-Lear said.
Though city officials quickly tapped $200,000 in federal money to stop further deterioration of the crippled building, efforts toward its full restoration have lagged as other recovery projects took precedence, Sylvain-Lear said.
"We prioritized public safety first, " including police stations and firehouses, she said, adding that community buildings like libraries came next. "The theater had specific priority because the performing arts groups just didn't have other options, and for them to survive, they really needed the expanded ticket sales."
Architects and engineers hired to plan the restoration of public facilities across the city have continued working on plans for the Municipal Auditorium, Sylvain-Lear said, but the project remains far from the top of the list. She declined to speculate on how soon the curtain may rise again.
As the auditorium has festered, the Mahalia Jackson Theater has seen $22 million in renovations, including installation of a cutting-edge sound system, a digital cinema screen, enhanced lighting, a new orchestra shell and a state-of-the-art ballet floor.
Tonight's New Orleans all-star revue, featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Kermit Ruffins, Ingrid Lucia and others, kicks off a week of performances by artists including songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and gospel singer Yolanda Adams with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, violinist Itzhak Perlman and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo.
In addition to the revival of the Mahalia Jackson Theater, about $5 million has been pumped into replacing lighting and restoring the grounds of Louis Armstrong Park, the 32-acre sanctuary of lawns and lagoons off North Rampart Street at the edge of the French Quarter.
Though the festivities mark the culmination of the restoration effort, quarreling continues over who will foot the bill. Local tax dollars have paid for the bulk of the work, and Mayor Ray Nagin has said the Federal Emergency Management Agency owes the city about $20 million in reimbursements.
But so far, FEMA has committed to pay only about $9.5 million. Under federal law, the agency must repay local governments for the cost of returning facilities damaged in disasters to their prestorm function, though not for upgrades.
Very early estimates for repairing the Municipal Auditorium set the cost at $7.9 million, Sylvain-Lear said. But she cautioned that structural and electrical damage to the building far exceeded that at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. As architects and engineers dig deeper into its problems, the sum is likely to grow and probably will eclipse the theater's price tag, she said.
FEMA has earmarked just more than $4 million to repair the auditorium, including the initial mitigation money, spokesman Andrew Thomas said. FEMA will consider all requests by City Hall for reimbursements, he said.
Built in 1929 for $2.5 million, the Municipal Auditorium was intended as a memorial to World War I veterans. Its elegant gathering spaces soon became a center of civic life. Rex and Comus hosted concurrent balls there, and their courts held the traditional Mardi Gras night meeting there.
Through the years, the building also welcomed auto shows, hockey games and conventions. Along with nearby Congo Square, it hosted the music festival that grew into the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and in 1996, it served as the temporary predecessor to Harrah's New Orleans Casino.
Known originally as the Municipal Auditorium and Exhibition Hall, the building was renamed in 1994 for Morris F.X. Jeff, a teacher and coach who established recreational and educational programs for black children before integration of the city's public buildings and programs.
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Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.
Original article published here...
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