The NOLA 25

The NOLA 25

Check out these short profiles of 25 of our favorite people, businesses, and organizations working in New Orleans right now. We apologize to everyone we couldn’t fit. Keep up the good work.

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Larry Sass's prefab shotgun homes are simple--but not at the expense of history.

Larry Sass, an assistant professor at the MIT Design Laboratory, is redefining the phrase "some assembly required." His yourHOUSE project is working

Celebrating famous cuisine by turning food lovers into food growers.

New Orleans has long been linked to regional cuisine standouts like jambalaya, gumbo, and beignets, yet the city has a rich history not just of cooking food but of grow

Reinventing a neighborhood while preserving its character.

Historic Green brings together preservation and sustainability, adding in a healthy dose of volunteerism. The goal is to rebuild the historic Holy Cross neighborhood in th

Making sure people return to their homes

The teacher Liz McCartney and the attorney Zack Rosenberg moved to New Orleans from Washington, D.C., in early 2006 for what they describe as "an unconventional vacation." Once they got there, the

Rediscovering New Orleans's riverside roots.

Sean Cummings is reinventing New Orleans through real estate, combining an entrepreneurial spirit with an abiding social conscience and a love for design. As the president of Ekistics,

New Orleans's newest musical accomplishment

Like Creole, Cajun cuisine, and Mardi Gras, "bounce" music--a form of hip-hop characterized by call-and-response lyrics--has the essence of New Orleans in it. The first professionally produced

New Orleans businesses keep it real

The charm of New Orleans, says Dana Eness, the executive director of the Urban Conservancy, is in its informal economy: "In discovering the places that don't necessarily keep regular business hours or

Bringing new meaning to factory farms

In a city long celebrated for its distinctive cuisine, it has taken some time for local and sustainable foods to catch on in shops. Jack and Jake's, a supermarket operating in a restored turn-

Affordable health care for the city's music scene.

The nonprofit New Orleans Musicians' Clinic is dedicated to promoting the health of local music--literally. Since 1998, the clinic has doled out free or low-cost health care to th

Enticing new media to put down roots

Drawing new businesses to New Orleans is key to revitalizing the economy. Establishing high-tech companies there will only help the economy continue to grow. To that end, following 2002's Motion Pictu

Modern art, New Orleans-style.

Kirsha Kaechele was raised in Guam and has traveled to more than 50 countries in what she calls "a hands-on investigation of the idea that life designs itself." It took a row of abandoned cottages in

Ending a culture of consumption

In our culture of convenience, replacing something broken with something new is usually the easiest option--if not the most economically or environmentally sound one. But what if reusing became too irresis

Building houses, without the limelight

The Brad Pitt-backed Global Green may have received more press and employed fancier architects, but Project Home Again has quietly constructed about 45 homes in New Orleans's Gentilly neighbo

Investing in recovery, one neighborhood at a time.

"New Orleans is a prophetic city," Mary Rowe likes to say. Rowe believes New Orleanians's spontaneous post-Katrina self-organization will provide a lesson in disaster recovery for

Salvaging the city's heritage

Inside a blighted, 100-year-old craftsman cottage in New Orleans's Broadmoor neighborhood, Rebuilding Together's team carefully removes a built-in cabinet that still shows a faint water line from the

Four companies shaping the future of New Orleans.

New Orleans will be rebuilt on the backs of small, locally owned businesses. Here are four that are paving the way.

The Icehouse Need a creativity-fueling communal workspace for

The city's story, in its own voice.

There exists a long tradition of writers obsessing over the "authenticity" of New Orleans, consumed with the task of accurately representing the city and its people--especially its unique black communi

Modern art to modernize the city

After Katrina, a New York-based curator named Dan Cameron wanted to help New Orleans. As a specialist in the art-world phenomenon of biennial exhibitions (he ran them in Istanbul and Taipei), he was uniqu

Bayou Biographers

John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is often considered the sine qua non of New Orleans literature. Here are six writers who have more recently captured the essence of the city's life.

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