The Claiborne Avenue Alliance Design Studio was born out of the advocacy work of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, a coalition of residents, property and business owners that was founded in 2017. The coalition is dedicated to the thoughtful development of the Claiborne Corridor.
The Claiborne Avenue Design Studio, founded in 2022, is a community-based not for profit architectural and urban design firm that is committed to providing access to architecture and urban design for all. Our design and planning services include building and open space design, historic restoration, downtown and neighborhood revitalization, environmental planning, zoning, entitlements, site planning, streetscape and landscape design. Through our work, we are committed to advocate for good land use policies that ensure a good quality of life for all.
LEADERSHIP
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AMY STELLY
Amy Stelly is an artist, designer and planner. She is a native of New Orleans and a proud resident of the Treme-Lafitte neighborhood. Her body of work includes architectural and urban design, along with abstract painting, drawing, mask-making, photography, mixed-media and three-dimensional construction. She has studied and worked with acclaimed architectural masters, including Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Doug Farr and the late Charles Moore. Amy rose to prominence as a freeway fighter when former President Joseph Biden cited the Claiborne Expressway as an example of infrastructure that has divided and harmed the city’s Treme and 7th Ward communities.
Amy is the founder of the design studio and its principal designer. She is a land use expert, preservationist, and a past president of Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents and Associates and the Urban Conservancy. She currently serves on the board of Homer Plessy Community Schools.
Amy has written about land use and zoning; the value of community engagement; and public accountability. And she is a contributor to the recently published Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana and Justice and the Interstates. Her writings have also been published in the Washington Post, Common Edge and The Lens. She is an avid swimmer and advocate for water safety and environmental stewardship.
DIRECTOR
JANE KRUG
DIRECTOR
DENISE MORRIS
DIRECTOR
SHARI SMOTHERS
DIRECTOR