NOCCA - The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts - New Orleans, Louisiana

In the year 2000 NOCCA opened its new $23 million performing arts magnet high school, NOCCA|Riverfront. The campus is located on a stunning site at a bend in the Mississippi River near the French Market in the heart of New Orleans.

NOCCA is an early pioneer and developer of the magnet high school concept. NOCCA provides professional training to accomplished artists who happen also to be in High School. The academic and career goals of the program are set very high. Admission standards are strict. 95 percent of NOCCA students go on to college or conservatory programs.

The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) is a regional, pre-professional arts training center that offers secondary school- age children intensive instruction in creative writing, dance, music, theatre, and visual arts while demanding simultaneous excellence. NOCCA was founded in 1973 by a diverse coalition of artists, educators, business leaders, and community activists who saw the need for an institution devoted to our region's burgeoning young talent. Today, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, Wendell Pierce, and Saints cornerback Ashley Ambrose are only a few NOCCA graduates who can attest to the extraordinary educational opportunity the Center represents to the children of Louisiana.

The former NOCCA facility, a former elementary school on Perrier Street, had no performance venues, which made it dificult to provide performance experience. The new facility allows NOCCA to add convenient and frequent public performances in thoroughly professional environments.

NOCCA|Riverfront combines new construction with renovation of some extremely old and historically important coffee warehouses, typical of the surrounding historic Old Algiers neighborhood.

Among the diverse arts facilities in NOCCA|Riverfront are several performance venues. Robert Davis Inc. provided theater consulting services throughout the design and construction of this project.

• Lupin Hall, a 380-seat proscenium theater with a full proscenium stage, resilient stage floor, and complete professional stage equipment for dance and music performance.
• A 130-seat studio laboratory theater for drama teaching and performance.
• Dance studios.
• Jazz classroom/recital room.
• An audio/video media production studio.
• A teaching art gallery.
• Choral/instrumental rehearsal room.

Architect: Kahler Slater Architects, Inc. - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Acoustician: Jaffe, Holden Acoustics, Inc. - Norwalk Connecticut