Piazza d'Italia (New Orleans, Louisiana)

 interesting place, plaza, postmodern (architecture)

The Piazza d'Italia is an urban public plaza in the Central Business District. It is controlled by the Piazza d'Italia Development Corporation, a subdivision of New Orleans city government. Completed in 1978 according to a design by noted post-modernist Charles Moore and Perez Architects[1] of New Orleans, the Piazza d'Italia debuted to widespread acclaim on the part of artists and architects. Deemed an architectural masterpiece even prior to its completion, the Piazza in fact began to rapidly deteriorate as the development surrounding it was never realized. By the turn of the new millennium, the Piazza d'Italia was largely unfrequented by and unknown to New Orleanians, and was sometimes referred to as the first "postmodern ruin". The conversion of the adjacent Lykes Center to the Loews Hotel, completed in 2003, was accompanied by the full restoration of the Piazza d'Italia, accomplished by 2004.

Unlike the structures it is inspired by in Italy, it is made of materials like stainless steel and neon, it is in bright cartoonish colors, and lights up at night, maybe like that of an architect’s strange dream.