New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center Renovations

Overview

The southern hospitality of staff. The rhythmic sounds of a jazz band. The savory flavors of local cuisine. At the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, guests can fully immerse themselves in the essence of New Orleans across its ballrooms, 140 meeting rooms and 4,000-seat theater. 

We provided structural design services to LMN Architects & EskewDumezRipple to expand the 46,000-square-foot convention center space into a 60,000-square-foot column free ballroom. We also helped introduce a 26,000-square-foot prefunction space, along with a new grand entry. 

Highlights

• Expanding the column-free ballroom space required increasing the span from 180 feet to 230 feet and reinforcing existing box trusses for heavier ceiling loads. We determined the reinforcement requirements of each box truss member, provided truss reinforcement schedules and details suitable for erection, new column designs incorporating heavy base plates and new foundations and column connection details to the existing box trusses.
• Enhancing the entry into the new prefunction and ballroom spaces involved demolishing the existing structure, replacing the lateral system, minimizing column locations, supporting a new 5,000-square-foot room with an occupiable roof terrace, designing for a 45-foot-tall curtain wall separating the indoor and outdoor spaces of the grand entry, new vertical circulation capacity and a cantilevered roof structure.