Cultural / 2025

Lincoln Beach Center

A two-phase expansion of the Lincoln Beach Center that gives the site public outdoor space, a restaurant, and a third-level lookout over the levee that doubles as a flood platform.

Project type: Museum expansion, restaurant, courtyard and community garden
Location: 13904 Hayne Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana
Status: Academic
Area: Two parcels, approximately 13,000 sq ft
Role: Designer

The site is two parcels on Hayne Boulevard in New Orleans East: 13904, about 7,000 square feet, and 13900, about 6,000 square feet, under separate ownership. Only the Lincoln Beach Center occupied the space, surrounded by undeveloped grassland, with no public outdoor amenity and no site programming at all.

Lincoln Beach matters before the architecture does. It was the beach open to Black New Orleanians during segregation, and the centre exists to hold that history. The museum interior is where that is set out, and the rest of the scheme is arranged so people have a reason to be on the site long enough to encounter it.

Phase one expands the museum and adds a central outdoor courtyard with seating and a water fountain. A three storey restaurant structure joins it, the first two levels for dining and the third an elevated lookout over the levee. In an emergency every elevated space doubles as a platform during floods, which on this coast is not a detail.

Phase two acquires the parcel to the west, paid for out of what the restaurant and the museum generate, plus community support. It adds a community garden, informal seating and better circulation across both parcels, so the two lots finally read as one place.

Walkthrough

Walkthrough of the completed scheme, moving from the boulevard through the courtyard to the lookout. Served from this site, with sound.

The museum on the corner of Hayne Boulevard, yellow weatherboard with teal and green shutters, paintings hung along the covered walk and a low white fence to the street

The crossing on Hayne Boulevard with the museum on the left and the restaurant tower rising behind it — Arrival. The corner from across the boulevard, and the garden read over the fence from the pavement.

The planted garden and its circular fountain seen over the low white fence from the pavement — Arrival. The corner from across the boulevard, and the garden read over the fence from the pavement.

Museum room with the Lincoln Beach Center sign, framed paintings between shuttered windows and a polished timber floor — The two interiors. The museum room where the history of the beach is set out, and the restaurant on the floor above it.

Restaurant interior with a chequerboard floor, timber tables and an open service counter — The two interiors. The museum room where the history of the beach is set out, and the restaurant on the floor above it.

The central courtyard with its circular water fountain, timber pergola and the restaurant tower behind — The courtyard, which is the piece of the scheme that did not exist before. Seating, planting and a water fountain at the centre of the site.

The tiered fountain under a flowering tree, with benches along the yellow wall of the museum — The courtyard, which is the piece of the scheme that did not exist before. Seating, planting and a water fountain at the centre of the site.

Diners under a timber lattice pergola strung with lights, beside a stair rising to the upper dining level — The restaurant. Covered dining under the pergola, and the three-storey structure it attaches to.

The teal restaurant structure with its open undercroft, external stair and the balcony wrapping the level above — The restaurant. Covered dining under the pergola, and the three-storey structure it attaches to.

Planted beds in flower along the path beside the museum, with people walking through — The gardens and the site as a whole, once both parcels are read as one place.

Aerial of the site showing the museum, the restaurant tower, the covered walk and the parking to the rear — The gardens and the site as a whole, once both parcels are read as one place.

Aerial looking along the planted beds and the fountain plaza toward the boulevard — The gardens and the site as a whole, once both parcels are read as one place.

The courtyard at night in rain, the tower lit from within and the fountain reflecting it — After dark. The lit volumes are what the centre becomes once the museum closes.

Aerial of the gardens at night, paths and planting picked out by ground lighting — After dark. The lit volumes are what the centre becomes once the museum closes.

Aerial of the whole site at night with the museum, the pergola and the tower all lit — After dark. The lit volumes are what the centre becomes once the museum closes.

Drawings

Site map at 1 to 2000 locating the centre on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, with Lincoln Beach and the site focus marked — Site map, wide

Focused site plan showing the two parcels, the boulevard, the planted courtyard and the tree cover around them — Site map, focus

Exploded axonometric in three parts showing the existing site, phase one with the museum expansion and restaurant, and phase two adding the western parcel and community garden — Phasing axonometric

First floor plan showing the museum, the restaurant, the courtyard and the planted landscape between them — First floor plan

Second floor plan showing the upper dining level — Second floor plan

Third floor plan showing the lookout level — Third floor plan

East west section cut through the restaurant structure, drawn with the surrounding trees and figures for scale — Section, east to west

Long north south section running from the lake across the levee and through the site to the housing beyond — Section, north to south