The new 120,000-square-foot Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience Museum is conceived as a venue to showcase and highlight the contributions that the city of New Orleans has made to the music industry. Located across the street from the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in downtown New Orleans, the museum will serve as a premier destination for visitors and locals alike. While there are several smaller museums in the state and region that celebrate specific genres of music, the complete view of music as it relates to the people and legacy of music from the city of New Orleans and state of Louisiana are not yet represented in one space. The concept for the Louisiana Music and Heritage Experience is to provide a unified story of music in the Pelican State and “solidify their music communities’ roles in the ongoing story of American music.” 

The museum’s concept design is inspired by music and the instruments that create it. The outer shell of the building takes inspiration from the hollowed body of a guitar, while outlines and silhouettes of various other instruments—violins, guitars, and various brass instruments—find expression as sinuous and flowing lines in specific elements and building details, both inside and outside the building. Inside, the museum will provide visitors with state-of-the-art exhibits, performance spaces, a research/archival area, a museum store, and classroom/education areas. The venue will also include a music club and restaurant where visitors can enjoy the sounds and tastes of New Orleans. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) programs, including Midjourney, were used during the design process to generate a wide range of architectural forms and styles for massing studies, drawing inspiration, again, from images of instruments such as guitars and saxophones. In addition to imagery, descriptions such as “Zumthor architecture,” “dramatic lighting,” and “cinematic,” were added to dimensional instructions for creative outputs. With access to a vast archive of imagery, AI algorithms helped to discern the nuances of form, texture, and proportion that define various musical instruments. 

While the design itself is still developing, the museum’s board of directors has continued to make a case for the museum, crafting feasibility studies and garnering support for construction. Various Louisiana musicians have spoken in support of the museum, including Kirk Joseph of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, “It needs to be done on a grand scale because New Orleans music has offered so much to the world over the centuries.”  

EskewDumezRipple design team 
Steve Dumez, Principal-in-Charge 
Mark Hash, Project Architect 
Andie Ottenweller, Project Team 
Javier Marcano, Project Team 
Sheena Garcia, Rendering Artist