The lakeside edge of the Central Business District or CBD, a tangle of busy gray highways, would be pretty lifeless without the colossal home of the New Orleans Saints football team, the Superdome . At 52 acres, with 27 stories and a diameter of 680ft, this is one of the largest buildings in the world. You can't really appreciate the sheer enormity of the place until you venture inside, either by seating yourself with 76,999 others to see a game (Aug-Dec $25-50), or second-best, by joining one of the superlatives- and statistics-heavy tours (Mon, Wed & Fri 10.30am, noon & 1.30pm, except during special events; $6; tel 504/587-3808).
Spreading upriver from the World Trade Center, at the foot of Canal Street, the revitalizing Warehouse District is being heralded as a thriving arts community. However, though it may be a desirable place to stick a cutting-edge gallery, the attractions are not always immediate for the casual visitor. Most of the sights are concentrated in the Arts District , the outcrop of art spaces concentrated around Julia and Camp streets. Hub of the scene is the Contemporary Arts Center , 900 Camp St (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; ground-floor galleries free; changing exhibitions $5; ). It's a beautifully designed space, and there's always something interesting going on, from the temporary shows on the ground floor to major exhibitions upstairs, along with avant-garde performances, classic and art-house movies, free lectures and workshops - plus a free cybercafé .
Around the corner, the impressive - and colossal - National D-Day Museum , 945 Magazine St (daily 9am-5pm; $7), opened on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe. Though its collection concentrates on the events of that devastating day, the museum also does a good job covering D-Day invasions in the Pacific. For all but diehard military buffs, the quantity of hardware and uniforms on show may seem a bit much, but luckily there is enough film footage, background material and, especially, oral testimony from both sides of the conflict to make the place thoroughly engaging.
It can be all too easy to forget that easy-living New Orleans has its roots entrenched in the Deep South; anyone who needs reminding should take a look at the Confederate Museum , 929 Camp St at Lee Circle. A gloomy Romanesque Revival hulk, designed in 1891 as a place for Confederate veterans to display their mementos, this so-called "Battle Abbey of the South" is a relic from a bygone age. Inside the church-like hall, glass cases are filled with swords, mess-kits, uniforms and helmets. The sepia photos - of the wealthy, muddy antebellum city, and sad-eyed youths awkward in uniform - are undeniably affecting, and there remains a funereal air about the place, with its bittersweet remembrances of long-lost generals and their forgotten families.
Next door, at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm; free), you can get tasters of the eclectic collection, which runs the gamut from rare eighteenth-century watercolors to contemporary photography in its temporary residence at 603 Julia St, but this represents just a drop in the ocean compared to what will be in the purpose-built five-story gallery.
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