It was potentially the worst publicity an arts organization could ask for: the site for the planned Louisiana ArtWorks center at the corner of Carondolet and Howard was partly occupied by a building whose historic and architectural significance became known only when an old metal facade across the front and side of the structure came down.

  "No one knew until then how beautiful the old Bradford Building really was," says Patty Gay, executive director of the Preservation Reource Center. Indeed, to the surprise and delight of local preservationists, the Bradford Building – a yellow-brick structure dating back to l915 that housed the old Bradford Furniture company – was pretty much in its original state when workmen removed the metal panels that had been put up in the 1960s, when the building was used as an office for the Housing Authority of New Orleans.

  "You could suddenly see that this was a very significant building," says Sara Orton, who soon helped launch a protest and petition effort that attracted more than one thousand signatures to save the Bradford.

  The Arts Council of New Orleans – the sponsors of Louisiana ArtsWorks – initially refused to drop plans to demolish the old building, saying that saving the building would add anywhere from $1 to $2 million in the overall project cost. Not until Senate President John Hainkel, R-New Orleans, threatened to withdraw some $5.7 million in state funding for the project did the Arts Council – which had also drawn the ire of of the Morial administration – back down.

  Now, nearly a decade after the Arts Council first contemplated building the Louisiana ArtWorks facility at the site, bids for the project will be accepted this summer with construction expected to begin in the fall. Arts Council officials says the ArtWorks center, which includes a five-story warehouse on St. Joseph Street and will uniquely combine working studio space with exhibit and retail space, should be open by the fall of 2002.

  "The controversy is over and we’re moving on now," says Karen Kersting, project manager for ArtWorks. Asks Scott Hutcheson, director of development and marketing for the Arts Council: "Did we suffer a black eye? I don’t think so. … Remember, in the end we stayed close to the mission of the Arts Council. We listened to the community and we changed."

  According to an agreement announced by the Arts Council and the Preservation Resource Center, among other groups, architects will redesign the exterior of the Bradford Building, while incorporating its facade with the St. Joseph Street warehouse and a new structure that will go up between the two old buildings. The design, says the Arts Council, "will marry three centuries of architectural styles, including the l9th century warehouse on St. Joseph street, the 20th century Bradford Building, and the new 21st century addition."

  "It did end up costing us more money to do it this way," says Hutcheson. "About $1 million more. But we think it is worth the money to make this project work."

  Orton, who was a student at Tulane University’s School of Architecture when she helped organize the petition drive to save the Bradford Building, walks away with a similarly upbeat feeling. "I think this controversy taught many of us that you can raise your voice and make a difference," she says. "On most days there were only about six of us with our signs on that corner, but the community listened and it made a difference."

Police Superintendent Richard Pennington’s effort to raise the educational standards of the New Orleans Police Department this week will be put to a vote of the Civil Service Commission that failed to draw a quorum last week.

  Voting by the five-member panel on Pennington’s plan to require minimal college education for supervisory officers is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday (May 23) at the commission meeting room on the seventh floor of City Hall.

  The four major police organizations within the NOPD are opposed to Pennington’s plan, which would raise education requirements above a high school general equivalency diploma (GED) for the first time in the department’s history. Led by top officials of the Police Association of New Orleans and the Black Organization of Police, the police groups want the Civil Service Commission to exempt all officers hired before mid-1999, when Pennington first issued the standards. The first sergeants’ exam under the new criteria is scheduled for next month.

  In response to a Gambit Weekly editorial supporting the chief’s plan, Christopher Baker, vice president of student government at the University of New Orleans, has drafted a resolution backing the Pennington plan. "It only makes sense that NOPD raise their standards, as New Orleans Public Schools are also being asked to raise their standards," Baker wrote. "NOPD should lead the way in New Orleans’ fight against ignorance."