New Orleans Mayor, Judges Fight Over New City Hall

Originally agreed to build a municipal complex across the street but not Mitch Landrieu wants a $300 million civic center instead

As a new administration set up shop in 2010 in New Orleans City Hall, plans were already in motion to replace that aging seat of government. Civil District Court judges and state lawmakers had joined ranks to promote building a new courthouse and a municipal complex just across Perdido Street, on the grassy knolls of Duncan Plaza.

Even Mayor Mitch Landrieu, just a few months into his nascent administration, threw his weight behind the project.

But in June, he instead threw cold water on it by proposing to spend $300 million to create a new "civic center" in the abandoned Charity Hospital building on Tulane Avenue.