Between Logos and Eros: New Orleans' Confrontation with Modernity Page: 50
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logic, the imperfect and un-ideal are left with nowhere to belong. So it is in Perinthia,
where either their science and calculations went terribly wrong, or- even worse - the
calculations prove a reality that is much more sinister than anyone could have imagined.
The original plan for New Orleans was signed by Pierre le Blond de la Tour and
dated April 23, 1722. It was an orthogonal grid design of six by eleven blocks identical in
size. The central line of blocks was perpendicular to the river, behind St. Louis Cathedral
and the Place d'Armes (the main square), and subdivided in two. These blocks are today
known as the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carre ("old square").
The grid plan dates from antiquity; some of the earliest planned cities were built
using grids. The first planned Greek city was probably the port city of Miletus, which
was rebuilt to a grid plan after 479 BC. Its gridded design has been associated with the
Pythagoreans. The grid plan was a common tool of Roman city planning, based originally
on its use in military camps, or castra. The Roman grid is characterized by a nearly
perfectly orthogonal layout of streets, all crossing each other at right angles, and by the
presence of two main streets, set at right angles from each other: the cardo and the
decumanus.
After the fall of Rome, the preconceived grid system fell too. Medieval towns
were dominated by a central cathedral with surrounding low buildings and short random
streets growing up organically around them.
During the enlightenment the planned grid came back into favor as a
manifestation of Cartesian rationality, a means of imposing order onto the landscape. It
was especially embraced in the United States of America. Washington DC itself,50
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Moore, Erin Christine. Between Logos and Eros: New Orleans' Confrontation with Modernity, thesis, May 2008; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc6073/m1/55/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .