In 1978 Mayor Ernest N. Morial began the process to improve Duncan Plaza, the open space in the middle of the New Orleans Civic Center, just across Perdido Street from City Hall. He appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on Sculpture in Duncan Plaza. To support pl anning for Duncan Plaza improvements the city applied to the National Endowment for the Arts and received funding through its Design Arts Program. The city and NEA agreed to make use of a Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) offered by the Ameri can Institute of Architects.

The Duncan Plaza R/UDAT process is well documented in these records as well as in files within the records of Mayor Morial, also housed in the City Archives. In addition, the R/UDAT in 1980 published a detailed report on its work and a year later a city r eport, The Public's Place in Art for Public Places: The Duncan Plaza Experience (by Robert L. Dupont and Stuart Arnett), placed the project within the context of a public art vision for the Crescent City. Copies of both reports are available in the City Documents Collection.

Folder Inventory

Folder Title	Box	Folder
Art: Sculpture in Duncan Plaza, 1978-1979	28	2
Arts, R/UDAT Process, 1979	28	12
Background Data on Participants, 1980	28	5
Duncan Plaza Competition, 1980	28	16
Duncan Plaza Project, 1979-1980	28	10
Duncan Plaza Sculpture Grant, 1979-1980	28	15
Duncan Plaza, 1978-1980	28	11
R/UDAT [General], 1980	28	4
R/UDAT Operations, 1979	28	14
R/UDAT Operations, 1979	28	1
R/UDAT Residue, 1980	28	3
R/UDAT Resumes, 1980	28	6
R/UDAT Steering Committee, 1979	28	13
R/UDAT Working File, 1979-1980	28	17
Sculpture Committee, Working File #1, 1979-1980	28	7
Sculpture Selection, 1980	28	9
Urban Design Subcommittee, 1980	28	8

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November 4, 1999--wme