French Quarter Order// A look inside the NCIS: New Orleans set 

NCIS: New Orleans stars Lucas Black, Scott Bakula and Zoe McLellan

It wasn’t hard, says production designer Victoria Paul, to decide on the look for

s’ much-featured squad room and its immediate surroundings. New Orleans, where the show is filmed, “doesn’t look like any other place in the world, and neither does its architecture.” The show’s pilot, shot in a historical building on St. Ann Street in the French Quarter, gave Paul and her team “the loosest of parameters” to work within. But when they built their own set, they upped the cool-stuff ante just enough to create the feel of an authentic Delta dream house—albeit one that’s rigged for the gritty realities of spying, interrogating and all-around crime busting. Here’s how they laid on the Southern charm.

“One central conceit,” Paul says, was that at some point in its more than 200-year life span “the squad room building had been a stable.” Hence the massive barn doors—architectural salvage-yard finds—that surround the structure’s impressive outdoor courtyard. The idea that the set would feature a courtyard at all grew out of Paul’s own “fantasy love affair” with all New Orleans courtyards. “And of course,” she says, “we had to have balconies.” The courtyard is laid with real Mexican saltillo tile and, as of this writing, that lush foliage is real. Recalling a cold snap in which “all the large tropicals took a hit,” however, the designer notes that some of them may be replaced with silk versions. “We’re still deciding,” she confesses.

Nowhere are Special Agent Dwayne Pride’s sensibilities felt more strongly than in the set’s earthy kitchen. “He’s a cook,” says Paul. “We imagine him whipping up some rice and beans in there every Monday.” With the space’s metal roof and exposed beams, the thinking here is that it was once used as an outdoor shed, enclosed around 1910. In service to its homey aesthetic, the “greasy spoon-style” stove was a must-get from the get-go; the chairs are a cozy mismatched mix; and the farm-style table is “ancient” but sanded to prevent splinters. Despite the kitchen’s occasional use as a “quiet interrogation area,” the notion of its potential for culinary wonderworks prevails. “We’ve hidden a big crab pot in the courtyard garden just outside,” Paul admits. “It hasn’t been used yet—but we like to think they take it out.”

A big challenge was adhering to the level of detail required of a space that gets as much screen time as the squad room does. Topping Paul’s “particulars” list were the interior walls, a study in hand-carved brick that reflects a full week of skilled labor. The 10-foot-wide chandelier , the poured and polished concrete floor and the signature mossy paint shade that was dubbed “French Quarter Green” all conspire to intensify a historical and place-specific ambience. But in the individual characters’ spaces—delineated by old, tribal-patterned rugs—detail takes on a personal dimension. Special Agent LaSalle’s domain is “funky and idiosyncratic”; Brody’s is orderly and contemporary; and Pride, who has the longest history with the division, has an extremely “layered” lair.