Travel Guide: New Orleans for Design Lovers

These days New Orleanians describe their lives using the terms "pre-Katrina" and "post-Katrina." The devastating hurricane and its aftermath are still felt nearly eight years later. But since post-Katrina New Orleans has shed its storm-sacked facades, a canvas of design opportunity has taken root. There's a new buzz in the city, and signs of real recovery are showing in repopulated neighborhoods where rebuilt and renovated homes in both traditional and contemporary styles are springing up.

And the energy has certainly spread outside the city's borders. The city had the second-highest number of visitors in its history in 2012. The record before that was in 2004, the year before Katrina hit.

The resilient city has endured many hardships over its past 300 years, but that's what gives it a uniqueness revered around the world. As the celebrated birthplace of jazz and dozens of culinary specialties — gumbo and the po' boy, to name two — what has emerged is an extreme mix of ethnicities nestled between the largest saltwater lake and the largest river system in North America. If you plan to visit New Orleans — pronounced "new OR-luhns," not "new or-LEENS" or "new or-le-ANS" or "NAW-lins" — the following design-minded destinations will help peel back the storied layers of its history.