The National Jazz Center will reside in an iconic building designed by Thom Mayne. It will house the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) as well as performance space, studios, classrooms, a library and offices.

"The plans and studies that we have done to date will be the generative material for this complex and important project," said Thom Mayne. "It is now that our work will begin in earnest -- to engage and collaborate with the community and with the project's stakeholders to further refine our initial concepts in order to most effectively and sensitively begin to rebuild this key part of the great city of New Orleans ."

"The new Hyatt Jazz District is a transformative project that will change the very nature of New Orleans for the better, much as the Superdome did a little more than 30 years ago," said Wm. Raymond Manning, the lead local architect in planning and design of the district. "Unlike one iconic building, however, the planned Hyatt Jazz District will integrate our civic infrastructure of courts and city hall with a major tourist destination and park that will link to other areas of the City, including the Quarter, Convention Center and Riverfront," Manning said.

According to Irvin Mayfield , artistic director of NOJO, "The new National Jazz Center and Park will be the catalyst that stimulates the revitalizationof the New Orleans economy rightfully centered around jazz, our most abundant natural resource. This will be the finest structure for jazz in the world."

"The new National Jazz Center can be a focal point for rebuilding ourtalent pool of jazz musicians as well as other artists, cultural troupes andentrepreneurs that the Cultural Committee of the Mayor's Bring New Orleans Back Commission found to be a critical component of rebuilding the City," said Wynton Marsalis, noted jazz musician and co-chairman of the Cultural Committeeof the Commission. "This project will complement and enhance New Orleans 'vibrant Jazz culture."