Apartments near New Orleans City Park in New Orleans, LA (318 Rentals)
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There are parks, and then there are great parks, and New Orleans City Park is a great reason to get out of your New Orleans apartment and enjoy some fresh air, awesome architecture, and see beautiful botanicals. Over 11 million people make the trek to one of the country's largest and oldest urban city parks at City Park. With 1300 acres of lawns with trees, lagoons and areas of growth, this incredible park facing Bayou St. John in the heart of New Orleans offers visitors many types of enjoyable activities and sights to see. We'll start with the representation of art and architecture that dot the landscape. City Park was granted the land in 1854, but not first established until the late 1800's. A wide variety of art and architecture therefore make up the lovely landscape, from turn of the century buildings to more modern styles, and a new master plan outlines details for the future. Art styles vary as well, with whimsical charicatures in the Storyland section of the park, to multiple works by Mexican-born Enrique Alferez, commissioned by the park to do the art. Reliefs on bridges, athletes on the gates surrounding Tad Gormley Stadium, and a number of works in the Botanical Garden, where much art deco sculpture is located, are included in the range of sculptural elements. The Botanical Garden is second on our list of destinations inside City Park. It is one of the few remaining examples of public garden design from the period of the Great Depression when the Works Progress Administration of the US was established to set up jobs at the time. Today the garden remains as a showcase of three notable talents - New Orleans Architect Richard Koch, Landscape architect William Wiedorn, and Artist Enrique Alferez. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the majority of the plant collection with category 3 winds and flooding for up to two weeks. Six months later, much of the park buildings and landscape was re-established, and the park was re-opened. Orchids, bromeliads and staghorn ferns, as well as many other dependent plants, however, were no longer visible to park visitors. In due time, the garden will return to its former glory. Within this huge City Park is a 33-acre preserve that hosts a mile of hiking trails, an arboretum, six learning stations and a hilltop observation platform. It's called the Couturie Forest, with 45 species of trees that are identified to New Orleans apartment-ites by both their common and scientific names. And if that's not enough trees for you, check out the largest collection of Live Oaks in the world, some of them over 200 years old, all located in New Orleans City Park. The park was profiled as the best birding spot in New Orleans by Birder's World Magazine in the June 2008 issue. Enjoy a picnic, play a game of soccer or football or frisbee on the lawns, jump on a boat ride or wander through the gardens and buildings at a brisk pace for some exercise. You'll be glad to took the trolley or brought the car from your New Orleans apartment to do so.