Navigating the VCC

Initiated August 2020; ongoing

The VCC Foundation and Vieux Carré Commission (VCC) are partnering to offer this free series designed to help property owners, tenants, and interested parties smoothly navigate the VCC processes and procedures. It starts with a presentation from the VCC Staff and ends with a live Question & Answer session. This event is FREE and open to the public. Each session will focus on a different aspect of the VCC and build on the topics before. After each session, the video is uploaded to our YouTube channel with a link to the presentation slides and the questions from the session are added to an FAQ page.

If you have topic suggestions or ideas, please send us an email at [email protected] We want to hear from you!

Quarterly Care Workshops

Initiated 2019; Ongoing

This workshop series is part of a multi-tiered education initiative to teach people of all ages and backgrounds about the value of the French Quarter’s architecture and proper stewardship of their historic structures through compliance with the Vieux Carré Design Guidelines. The Quarterly Care Workshop series is designed to provide hands-on demonstrations and resources to property owners and caretakers about the nuts-and-bolts of architectural preservation. Maintenance is preservation – and proper maintenance will protect historic structures from untimely deterioration. Join the VCC Foundation as an expert tackles important topics in historic property maintenance and care. Learn best practices for taking care of your property, what you should do, what you should NOT do, and how to identify good and bad work being done by your contractor.

Our goal is to raise awareness of the French Quarter’s cultural, economic, and historical value, as well as to concretely educate people about the nuts-and-bolts of architectural preservation by way of demonstrations and resources to French Quarter stakeholders that directly yield value to the district’s distinctive character. We know not everyone can make it to all workshops, so we make them available via our YouTube channel.

Virtual Library

initiated August 2015; ongoing

We are thrilled to announce the inaugural release of tens of thousands of historic Vieux Carré Commission archives for free viewing by the public at FrenchQuarter.nola.gov (or VieuxCarre.nola.gov). This innovative map-based electronic archive boasts: 44,000 historic slides have been scanned and linked to the properties they depict, every structure in the neighborhood has been painstakingly mapped in GIS, and every building’s color rating and other major attributes have been identified and defined. The Foundation is also now scanning and identifying the VCC’s countless historic paper photographs, to be added to the Virtual Library and linked to their locations on the map. Future phases include scanning and adding the 4,000 property files, as well as meta-tagging the images to 500-plus terms that are already defined in the Virtual Library glossary. This monumental and much-needed endeavor will serve as a resource not only for the VCC, but also for architects, property owners, residents, and people worldwide who are interested in the renowned architecture of the Vieux Carré.

Funded in part by generous grants from the Ella West Freeman Foundation and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

Vieux Carré Design Guidelines

Completed August 2015

One of the Foundation’s biggest accomplishments is its complete overhaul and update of the Design Guidelines for the Vieux Carré Historic District, a guide for preserving and protecting the district’s architectural and historical resources, which the City Council adopted in August 2015. This was a much larger and more comprehensive project than the lighting study that preceded it; it was intended to replace the 1986 design guidelines in their entirety.

The new guidelines provide detailed information and illustrations to instruct property owners, design professionals, contractors, VCC staff, and the Vieux Carré Commissioners regarding appropriate exterior changes to properties within the historic district.

These guidelines are provided to the public free of charge online, and are also available for purchase in hardback book format consisting of 200-plus pages illustrated with 369 color photographs and 219 drawings.

Exterior Lighting Design Guidelines

Completed April 2013

The Foundation’s first major project was to conduct a comprehensive lighting study of the French Quarter aimed at assisting the VCC in adopting new lighting guidelines. This project was designed to meet the needs of the Vieux Carré in regard to critical issues of security, pedestrian safety and aesthetics, not only for property owners, but also for the neighborhood’s 9-million-plus visitors per year.

The old lighting guidelines created in 1986 had become obsolete in the face of modern and rapidly changing lighting technologies. The Foundation funded and completed the comprehensive study to provide property owners and VCC staff with prescriptive guidelines for the use of exterior illumination tailored to address the variety of building types and styles within the French Quarter, the tout ensemble of the Vieux Carré, and public safety needs, including optimal lighting for security cameras. The results of the study were incorporated into new state-of-the-art exterior lighting design guidelines.

Morrison Memorial Lecture Series

Initiated 2002; Ongoing

This biennial event is part of an ongoing series to educate the public about issues of historic preservation and to honor two longtime residents and advocates of the Vieux Carré, Jacob Haight Morrison and Mary Meek Morrison, who were also ardent and tireless advocates for its preservation. It is coordinated in collaboration with The Historic New Orleans Collection and Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents, and Associates.

Past lectures include:

• Pratt W. Cassity, Director  Center for Community Design & Preservation, College of Design, University of Georgia; “Managing Change in Historic Districts”
• Costas Christ, National Geographic’s senior advisor for sustainable tourism; “How Sustainable Tourism is Transforming the Global Travel Industry and What that Means for New Orleans”
• Calder Loth, retired senior architectural historian of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; “Infill and Additions in Historic Districts: The Ever-Perplexing Problem”
• Kirk Cordell, Executive Director National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, Natchitoches LA; “Preservation in the 21st Century: How Technology is Reshaping the Management of Historic Resources”

Vieux Carré Contractors List

Updated October 2021

The Vieux Carré Commission is a government agency and therefore is unable to recommend contractors, architects, engineers, or any other vendors. A representative with VCC Foundation attends most VCC meetings and hearings. During these, the representative will make note of vendors doing work within the boundaries of the Vieux Carré Historic District.

This list is compiled with the intent of helping to guide property owners and tenants, but is not a comprehensive list of good service providers. One of the best ways to find good vendors or to know which vendors are right for you is by asking your neighbors!