Pierre Le Blond de La Tour

Pierre le Blond de la Tour (1673–1723/4) was an engineer in French Louisiana who was largely responsible for the layout of early New Orleans.

[4] He served under the renowned engineer Vauban, considered one of the finest of the age, whose influence can be seen in De la Tour's later work in Louisiana.

[5] At least fifteen engineers, architects, and draftsmen were dispatched to French Louisiana during the early years of the New Orleans settlement, which was quite a large number considering the region's sparse population.

[7] De la Tour was appointed engineer-in-chief of the colony, and later lieutenant general, second-in-command to Governor Bienville.

[11] Around this time, De la Tour observed the Great Louisiana Hurricane of 1722, which he wrote about in a letter; he recorded that it knocked down many buildings but that all of them "were old and provisionally built, and not a single one was in the alignment of the new city and thus would have had to be demolished.

Detail of the map from the de la Tour survey of 1720 as published in 1759, showing the New Orleans area with Lake Borgne, Lake Pontchartrain Basin, and lower Missisissippi River.
The layout of the Vieux Carre was largely based on De la Tour's plan for New Biloxi.