The lyrics of Kendrick Lamars 2012 single Poetic Justice express a duality between belief and skepticismIf I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room would you trust it? When the artist takes the Super Bowl LIX halftime stage in New Orleans this coming February, he will be enveloped by the Superdomes half-billion-dollar renovation, led by Trahan Architects. Significantly, 2025 will mark both the 50th anniversary of the buildings opening and the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrinas landfall. With updates to materiality, accessibility, and user experiences, the landmarked stadium is finally flourishing, albeit within a hard-bitten city still germinating after decades of convalescence. The Superdome is closely associated with New Orleans itself, but when the two are referred to interchangeably, praise for this state-owned building (its leased to the NFL) can misrepresent challenges that still lie ahead for the city. The Superdomes longtime operator exemplified this merger when speaking of the post-Katrina restoration effort: The minute we turn that roof white again, people are going to believe in this recovery. Trahan was chosen to repair the Superdome in 2005 during its temporary closure. However, the most recent improvements required the local project team to safely navigate a busy event schedule that remained active during construction. The undertaking was tackled incrementally, leaving behind freshly finished amenities for spectators, operators, and athletes. Roundly recognized for curated material applications in award-winning theater and museum projects, Trahan Architects made no exceptions for the arena. Extruded aluminum tubes hug the complex forms of three new atria that guide the majority of fans to their upper-level seating. A subtle shift from polished concrete to terrazzo in exclusive club areas maintains a minimal palette while providing a noticeable value-add for VIP ticket holders. Sleek-edged profiles, elegant textures, and dark metal accents take cues from the hospitality world, providing a subdued luxury for premium game experiences.The architects leveraged unused vertical spaces to install escalators and elevators in place of the old ramps.Finish upgrades also coincided with updated branding. Caesars Entertainment doubled down on its investment in the Poydras Street corridor, anchored by the stadium on the lake side and by a freshly pedimented Caesars Hotel & Casino on the river side. Now emblazoned with the silhouette of its imperial namesake, the Caesars Superdome has come full circle, in a manner of speaking. Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers, the stadiums original designers, paid homage to the Superdomes ancient forebears, proclaiming that the Superdome seeks to do for New Orleans what the great amphitheaters and stadia of antiquity did for their communities. Their implication was that the arena would serve as a civic center rather than a dedicated sports venuean innovative concept at the time. The building can fit 1.5 Colosseums beneath its impressive 9.7-acre roof, providing space for monster truck rallies, Mardi Gras balls, and three consecutive nights of Taylor Swifts Eras Tour. While the 1970s design debuted new ideas like adaptable seating, its circulation eventually became antiquated by contemporary standards. Trahans removal of a space-hogging ramp system allowed the architects to reclaim 100,000 square feet of usable space without expanding the buildings footprinta remarkable example of creative preservation in practice. The operation allowed for concessions to breathe new life into widened sideline concourses, freeing up space in the corners for modernized vertical circulation. Some ramps still remain at each end zone, but new elevators and express escalators now take fans to their destinations in a fraction of the timeall critical infrastructure for ushering in the full-capacity crowd expected for the championship game in February.The clever use of vertical elements in details like these screens draws the eye upward, like in a religious space. (Tim Hursley)Super Bowl LIX and its venue are primed to enter the canon of New Orleanss most storied events, but the Superdome still characterizes many Americans remembrances of the paradigm-shifting storm that flooded 80 percent of the city and claimed 1,392 lives (including six inside the stadium itself). Todays visitors would be hard-pressed to find any acknowledgment of the disaster, partly because of the removal of a small documentary display that chronicled the event during a recent phase of improvements. Decades of work have significantly updated the half-century-old stadium, decidedly encasing troubling histories beneath layers of applied finishes. Is this the same stadium where disempowered and dispossessed New Orleanians were left to languish, or like the Ship of Theseus, did replacing its constituent parts succeed in creating the structure (and, as some suggest, the city) anew?Modern luxe finishes like brass and silver tones offer optical upgrades. (Tim Hursley)To forge ahead or to dwell on the past is a persistent question just behind the tableau of The Big Easy, in which the Superdome gets placed front and center. Which way one leans largely depends upon whether past injustices continue to impact their communities. On opening day 200613 months after 30,000 refugees were abandoned withinESPNs Mark Schwartz reported that perhaps the most daunting task is to scrub away memories of the Superdome as a cesspool of human misery. This view denied its human-made causes while sanitizing its inconvenient juxtaposition with sporting fanfare. At the Saintss 2024 home opener, a Fox NFL commentator again marveled at the efforts being made to prepare the city for the upcoming occasion: They are rebuilding this city for the Super Bowl. Road and drainage projects have certainly accelerated across New Orleans, yet intermittent power outages have spiked in recent months, including one that interrupted the writing of this very article. In August, the entire city was subjected to a multiday boil-water advisory (a frequent hassle for some areas) when a Mylar balloon drifted into power lines near a treatment plant, disrupting the citys potable water system. The state legislature recently denied New Orleans $29 million for a more resilient power station. The state eventually negotiated down to $17 million in matching city funds, amounting to a $55 million state investment in the project to date. Meanwhile, at least $90 million in renovation costs and debt forgiveness have been dispensed to the Superdome, a small example of the stadiums primacy as an economic investment over critical municipal services. For its part, the city government occasionally fumbles its obligations to bolster New Orleanss wider resiliency. This year, a federal watchdog cited the failure of Mayor LaToya Cantrells administration to start on eight green infrastructure projects that were funded back in 2017. Its report, After More Than Six Years, the City of New Orleans National Disaster Resilience Project Activities Had Made Little Impact on Resilience, expressed skepticism that the city could complete any of the designated projects.A section drawing shows how the stadium reaches to meet the street and incorporates modern vertical circulation. (Courtesy Trahan Architects)If recovery is defined as returning something to its former state, then New Orleans may never recover from Hurricane Katrina on those terms. The citys population remains below prestorm levels, and more than 100,000 Black residents found themselves putting down roots elsewhere after the conditions for their return were not equitably facilitated. New Orleans closed 85 percent of its public housing from 1996 to 2007 in favor of mixed-income projects and vouchers, displacing many low-income residents. Housing costs are still trending upward today, but the catastrophic storm and equally catastrophic response did not eradicate the culture of those who were able to return once the water drained.Views of the field are the most important: Even from the nosebleeds, viewers get a full view of the action. (Tim Hursley)The vibrancy of celebrations like Black and Indigenous walking parades on Super Sundays should not be taken for granted but should be protected with requisite investment in the longevity of the communities that perform them. The Superdomes renovation might best be used as a goal rather than a gauge of the citys prosperity. City officials seem to share this sentiment, marking their intention to maintaining improvements beyond the Super Bowl and build on their momentum. Trahan Architects was thoughtful enough to future-proof the building, anticipating the replacement of its elevated entry plinth with street access thats more publicrepresenting the belief that the citys street life will eventually grow outward to meet it. If New Orleanians are provided with equivalent resources, then it just might.Page Comeaux is an organizer, architect, author, and educator.