Regional Modernism :: The New Orleans Archives

Arthur Q. Davis, FAIA (1920-2011)

2011-12-20T11:20:00.001-06:00

Arthur Q. Davis, FAIA, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

I feel so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know architect Arthur Q. Davis through my work at the Tulane University School of Architecture, especially in my efforts since the storm to document the modern architecture of New Orleans. In 2008 Mr. Davis graciously met with my Regional Modernism class and made a great impression on the students. He was a colorful storyteller and shared anecdotes from when he studied under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and worked for Eero Saarinen, thus establishing within the room a tangible link to some of the great masters of modernism. We are now beginning to understand that Mr. Davis and his partner Nathaniel C. Curtis, Jr (1917-1997) were masters of regional modernism, committed to designing contemporary architecture relevant to our regional climate and urban fabric.

We tend to think of New Orleans architecture only in the vernacular. We tend to privilege traditional architecture over contemporary. We tend to overlook the modern architecture in our midst. But in the 1950s New Orleans was a hotbed for modern architecture and the partnership of Curtis and Davis were pioneers of the new. However the recent losses are staggering. Since the storm we have lost six significant buildings designed by Curtis and Davis - the St. Frances Cabrini Church, four schools (McDonogh 39, Thomy Lafon, Carver and Cabrini) and the Dr. Lyman K. Richardson Residence. In the past few years Mr. Davis frequently lamented that an architect should not outlive his buildings. We are blessed that the magnum opus of the firm, the recently renamed and brilliantly illuminated Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the most recognized building in the state of Louisiana, stands as a testament to the ingenuity and ambition of Mr. Curtis and Mr. Davis.

Sunkel-Nagin Residence on the Market

2011-11-09T07:07:00.002-06:00

Sunkel Residence, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Former Mayor Ray Nagin has listed his residence on the market. Architect Albert C. Ledner designed the house in 1962 for Pat and Adrian Sunkel - the first of three houses Ledner designed on Park Island. Known as the "Ashtray House" for its frieze of amber glass ashtrays along the fascia.

VIEW LISTING (includes photos of interior!)

Henry Miller liked New Orleanians' lust for life

2011-09-02T17:28:00.000-05:00

New Orleans' Bohemian Outsider “Gypsy Lou” – 1955, co-founder of Loujon Press, which published Miller's Order and chaos chez Hans Reichel in 1966.

Of course the New Orleans people are extremely hospitable [...]. It is the most congenial city in America that I know of and it is due in large part, I believe, to the fact that here at last on this bleak continent the sensual pleasures assume the importance they deserve. It is the only city in America where, after a lingering meal accompanied by a good wine and good talk, one can stroll at random through the French Quarter and feel like a civilized human being.

(The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, pp. 126-127)

Moderns on the Market

2011-09-01T13:34:00.000-05:00

No less than three modernist houses on the market right now! If you know of any others, please comment below.

"House of the Future" (c. 1940). 6855 Canal Blvd. August Perez

$299,000

Office of the architect(1948). 1310 Esplanade. L. F. Dufrechou.

$385,000

Louis J. Roussel Residence (1957). 734 Lakeshore Parkway. August Perez & Associates

$875,000

Romanticism + Regionalism

2011-08-30T05:23:00.000-05:00

I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without
its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined
around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight, in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in
a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.

[Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass, photo by Francine Stock]

National Bank of Commerce (Tulane branch) 1958

2011-08-15T11:34:00.001-05:00

National Bank of Commerce (Tulane branch) 1958, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1956 construction began on National Bank of Commerce Tulane Avenue branch near Jefferson Davis Parkway.

Architects Curtis and Davis designed the office building with ample natural light for the 7300 SF of office space on each of the six floors. The cantilevered zig zag entrance canopy provided minimal ornamentation to an otherwise simplistic facade.

Construction was completed in 1958 by R.P. Farnsworth and Company.

[source: Times-Picayune, 05-16-1956, 10-17-1958]

Broken Promises and Green Space

2011-07-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

The Uptown Messenger reported on Tuesday night's meeting to discuss the Recovery School District's amended plans for the Central City, Uptown and Garden District schools.

There are many important issues at stake. But what immediately caught my eye was that the RSD has removed Hoffman Elementary from the plan entirely, as 'no longer needed'. This is a shocking revelation.

In 2009 The RSD made a public promise before the City Council and neighborhood representatives to move Hoffman from an unfunded phase (perhaps 6?) to phase one or two. With this promise, the neighborhood changed their position from supporting preservation to demolition, as they desperately wanted a school for their community.

On September 17, 2009 the New Orleans City Council voted to overturn the NCDC decision to deny a demolition permit for Hoffman Elementary School, 2622 S. Prieur Street. Councilwoman Stacy Head expressed regret regarding ordering the demolition of a historic structure. [At the hearing] representatives of the Recovery School District verbally promised to move the Hoffman site up to phase two, and possibly phase one if they can secure the financing. It is tragic that the RSD outright refuses to renovate this structure. The building assessment in the School Facilities Master Plan indicated that it would cost $2.2 million LESS to renovate Hoffman, but they would prefer to start over.

Hoffman Elementary (architect Charles Colbert, 1954) was razed in February of 2010. Fast forward 2011 and now the RSD has determined there will be no school in the Hoffman Triangle. Tragically the neighborhood was not just hoodwinked into supporting demolition in their desperation for a school in their neighborhood, but they also lost a significant modern structure which could have been adapted to serve the community in other ways had it not been demolished.

Wheatley Elementary School was a perfectly fine building: Letter to the editor

2011-07-07T08:47:00.001-05:00

Architect Raymond Boudreaux worked with Charles Colbert in the Office of Planning and Construction for Orleans Parish Schools and later in the firm Colbert Lowrey Hess and Boudreaux.
His letter to the editor dated June 24, 2011 was published on July 7, 2011 in the Times-Picayune.

A Plea For Modernism

2011-05-25T10:31:00.000-05:00

Hand Crafted Films, DOCOMOMO Louisiana and the Tulane School of Architecture present:

A Plea For Modernism from Evan Mather

A Plea For Modernism from Evan Mather on Vimeo.

The Phillis Wheatley Elementary School has served the historic New Orleans African-American neighborhood of Tremé since it opened in 1955. Celebrated worldwide for its innovative, regionally-expressive modern design – the structure sustained moderate damage during the storms and levee breach of 2005. DOCOMOMO Louisiana is advocating for its restoration via adaptive reuse.

A Plea For Modernism [Evan Mather, Hand Crafted Films, 2011] includes interviews with professor John Klingman of the Tulane School of Architecture, architect Wayne Troyer, John Stubbs, vice-president for field projects for the World Monuments Fund and author/actress Phyllis Montana-Leblanc, a former student of Phillis Wheatley. It was written by Francine Stock and Evan Mather and narrated by actor Wendell Pierce (HBO's The Wire, Treme). The film includes historical photos courtesy of the Tulane Libraries Southeastern Architectural Archive and Tulane School of Architecture's New Orleans Virtual Archive, as well as Charles Colbert's presentation boards courtesy of the Orleans Parish School Board Archive, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans. Contemporary photography is by Emily Ardoin, Winifried Brenne, John Defraites, Anthony DelRosario, Karen Gadbois, Karran Harper Royal, Meg Holford, Michael Kievets / Sybolt Voeten, Sergio Padilla, Francine Stock and John Stubbs. Animations and graphics are by Evan Mather and Wayne Troyer. The original music score is by Jusso Auvinen.

If no action is taken the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School will demolished in Summer 2011. Please take time to sign the petition to save Phillis Wheatley and contact our public officials.

Mayor Mitchell Landrieu, City of New Orleans (504) 658-4900

Superintendent John White, Recovery School District (504) 373-6200

Superintendent Darryl Kilbert, Orleans Parish School Board (504) 304-3520

In taking these steps, we affirm the significance and diversity of our architectural and cultural heritage and our desire to rescue the future from the past.

Francine Stock

president

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana

New Orleans Regional Modernism is available on the App Store!

2011-05-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

DOCOMOMO Louisiana and Tulane University are pleased to present:

The New Orleans Regional Modernism app is designed to highlight the significant, threatened and lost modern architecture of New Orleans. It is a project of Tulane University and DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana, a regional chapter of an international committee dedicated to the documentation and conservation of the buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement.

This location-based app allows you to browse modern buildings in New Orleans by architect, neighborhood, category or status (extant, threatened or razed). Three tour routes have been identified: St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, Canal Streetcar, and the 2011 Modernism in New Orleans tour led by Francine Stock and Keli Rylance for the Society of Architectural Historians.

We are grateful to Tulane Libraries' Southeastern Architectural Archive, the Tulane School of Architecture's New Orleans Virtual Archive, the New Orleans Public Library's City Archives, and to many students and friends for providing photos. Descriptions of buildings were written by DOCOMOMO members, students in Francine Stock's Regional Modernism class at Tulane School of Architecture, and Karen Kingsley, author of Modernism in Louisiana.

This software was designed and is supported by the Innovative Learning Center, a division of Tulane Technology Services.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Compatible with iPhones and iPads running iOS 4.3+. Requires network connectivity. Please note our first update (coming soon!) will include functionality at iOS 4.2 level to extend the app to iPhone 3 and iPod Touch 2.

To contact the local chapter about this app or to submit a building for inclusion, email: docomomo.neworleans@gmail.com

Please join DOCOMOMO in supporting the preservation of modern architecture.

Francine Stock
Visual Resources Curator, Tulane School of Architecture
President, DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana

Follow DOCOMOMO NOLA:

National Trust :: Modernist Masterpiece at Grave Risk in New Orleans

2011-05-10T15:35:00.002-05:00

But even after the functional death sentence, it’s clear that Wheatley, named for a colonial-era African American poet, is not dead yet.

[Brad Vogel, National Trust for Historic Preservation]

SAVE PHILLIS WHEATLEY!

A numeric overview :: recent losses from the recent past

2011-05-06T22:09:00.004-05:00

I started Regional Modernism: the New Orleans Archives 3 years ago to document the process of documenting modernism in New Orleans. I had just lost my 1st building, a moderne structure on Canal and Treme. I'd only photographed it weeks before and was shocked to see it reduced to rubble before I had a chance to get to know it. A mission made in a moment.

The Regional Modernism course at Tulane School of Architecture in the spring of 2008 was less about teaching and more about discovering and documenting. The students and I started by merging data from the Southeastern Architectural Archives, the New Orleans Public Library's City Archives and Samuel Wilson's Guide to New Orleans Architecture into a map of nearly 850 modern buildings in New Orleans, of which 250 are chronicled in the Regional Modernism flickr account. Soon (very soon) the Regional Modernism iphone app will be released. It includes nearly 150 modern buildings, lost, extant and threatened.

Through this process, I've learned not just about identifying modernism in our midst, but also about its significance and relationship to the history of our built environment. In 1955 Progressive Architecture's 2nd Annual Design Awards recognized more buildings by architects from New Orleans and Louisiana than any other city or state in the nation. That's right. Before New Orleans was the city that care forgot, it was one of the most architecturally progressive cities in the nation.

Yet we are losing significant modern architecture at a truly alarming rate. In the mid 20th century 6 New Orleans buildings received national AIA Awards. Soon two thirds of these will be gone.

Since 2008 the mid 20th century modern public school has become an endangered species in New Orleans. Of the city's 30 public schools designed and built in the 1950s, today only 3 are left standing. Soon only 1 may remain. At the Hands Around Wheatley gathering in April, John Stubbs offered this sobering statistic:

Since the World Monuments Watch List program was established in 1995, we’ve listed nearly 600 sites in ninety-one countries. In Moscow, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and Havana others have found ways to preserve threatened modern buildings, surely we can do the same with Wheatley School. If the Wheatley school is lost through demolition, it will be the 1st site on our World Monuments Watch List that died in our hands.

This week the Louisiana Landmarks Society announced its New Orleans 9 Most Endangered List for 2011. The current list recognizes Abandoned and Neglected Public School Buildings City-Wide including the "Phillis Wheatley School in Treme, once internationally known for its cutting-edge mid-20th century design." The 2008 list included Mid-century Modern Public Schools. Of the 4 schools cited in 2008, McDonogh 39 and Carver have been razed and demolitions are pending for Wheatley and Lafon.

Next week we welcome the 2011 American Institute of Architects annual meeting to New Orleans. DOCOMOMO Louisiana will present an exhibit on mid-century modern schools at the Preservation Resource Center. On view will be reproductions of architect Charles Colbert's 9 presentation boards of drawings of the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School. The exhibit will also feature contemporary photography of the Phillis Wheatley, Thomy Lafon and George Washington Carver Schools by Emily Ardoin, John Klingman, Anthony DelRosario and Francine Stock. Phyllis Montana-Leblanc's petition to SAVE PHILLIS WHEATLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN NEW ORLEANS! SAY "NO!" TO DEMOLITION now has 1555 signatures. Add yours today.

You can also email your comments directly to to Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu: mayor@nola.gov

It's not too late to raise your voice in support for the preservation of this significant and truly unique school building.

Francine Stock

[photo: John Stubbs, World Monuments Fund]

HANDS AROUND PHILLIS WHEATLEY

2011-04-12T07:18:00.001-05:00

HANDS AROUND PHILLIS WHEATLEY2, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

This Sunday April 17, 2011.

Come together and show your support for the preservation of a unique and severely threatened historic world monument. Let's celebrate the legacy and significance of the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in Treme.

We stand up at NOON.

SAVE WHEATLEY SCHOOL! sign and share this petition

2011-03-24T13:59:00.002-05:00

Dear friends,

On behalf of DOCOMOMO US/ Louisiana I ask you to consider signing an online petition to save the historic modern Phillis Wheatley Elementary School which is threatened with demolition. This petition was started by Phyllis Montana-Leblanc. PML spoke passionately at Friday's hearing before the Historic District Landmarks Commission in defense of her alma mater, "If you tear down my school, a part of me dies with it."

Unfortunately we have learned that there will NOT be a review before the City Council and an RFP has been issued for the demolition. Apparently since this is a city-initiated (Orleans Parish School Board via Recovery School District) demolition of a city-owned building, the City Council is not required to review the demolition request. Still, we remain dedicated to the call to preserve the Wheatley School which was listed on the World Monuments Fund Watch in 2010.

We hope to gather more than 2000 signatures and present the petition to Mayor Landrieu and the City Council.

I'm so very grateful to Phyllis for coming forward and reminding me that there is still Hope.
This is truly our midnight hour.

SAVE PHILLIS WHEATLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN NEW ORLEANS! SAY "NO!" TO DEMOLITION(AUGUST 2011)

If you have already signed and shared the petition with your friends, I extend my heartfelt gratitude. Please consider joining DOCOMOMO US to help support the documentation and conservation of the buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement.

Sincerely yours,

Francine Stock

President

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana

Raymond Boudreaux Residence (1966)

2011-03-22T12:04:00.003-05:00

Raymond Boudreaux Residence (1966), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1966 Louisiana architect Raymond Boudreaux (b. 1922) designed a significant renovation and modernization of a center hall cottage for himself and his wife Hilda Mary (Boss) Boudreaux at 1218 Moss on Bayou St. John. Boudreaux drew a complete set of drawings of the extant structure at the start. The monumental cypress shutters were salvaged from Three Oaks Plantation formerly on the site of the American Sugar Refinery in Chalmette.

Boudreaux was born in Marrero, but raised in the French Quarter and attended McDonogh 15 Elementary and Samuel J. Peters High School. After graduating from Tulane School of Architecture in 1949 he went to work for Freret and Wolf. In 1951 he left for a six-month European tour, traveling from Denmark to Southern Italy. Upon his return, he went to visit former professor Charles Colbert, now head of the new Office of Planning and Construction for Orleans Parish Schools. Colbert offered Boudreaux a job writing programs for new schools. In 1954 Boudreaux joined the firm Colbert, Lowrey, Hess and Boudreaux. When Colbert left New Orleans to become Dean of Columbia University, the partnership became Lowrey, Hess and Boudreaux, and practiced as such until December 1990.

[Francine Stock, Regional Modernism; photo: Francine Stock, New Orleans Virtual Archive, Tulane School of Architecture]

Kirschman Residence (1962)

2011-03-22T10:51:00.002-05:00

Kirschman Residence (1962), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

in 1960 architect Charles R. Colbert designed a new residence for Victor F. Kirschman at 12 Swan Street in Lake Vista. The house was designed to maximize views of Lake Pontchartrain over the levee and beyond the park. Kirschman was the president of Kirschman Furniture founded by his father Morris Kirschman in 1914.

[Francine Stock, Regional Modernism; photo: New Orleans Virtual Archive, Tulane School of Architecture]

International Trade Mart [First] 1947

2011-03-22T10:14:00.003-05:00

International Trade Mart [First] 1947, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The first International Trade Mart building on the downtown riverside of Camp and Common was designed in 1947 by Rathbone DeBuys, AIA (1874-1960). It opened in 1948 as a testament to the progressive nature of the new New Orleans.

"The International Trade Mart, the first world-trade market place, is as modern as the Middle South spirit which inspired its construction. Five streamlined stories of windowless concrete and glass brick, it houses the export-import displays and sales offices of hundreds of manufacturers, some 50 leading international traders and several nations." [i]

The first ITM was actually an adaptive reuse and modernization of a late 19th century structure (A. Baldwin Wood & Co., Thomas Sully, 1889). After the second ITM building (Edward Durell Stone) at 2 Canal was completed in 1967, the first ITM was renamed the Gateway Building. It was demolished in 1978 along with several other buildings for the Sheraton Hotel.

[Francine Stock, Regional Modernism; photo: Dorothy Violet Gulledge Photograph Collection, Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library]

[i] Times-Picayune July 5, 1948

F. Edward Hebert Federal Building (1939)

2011-03-22T07:20:00.001-05:00

Federal Building (1939), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The 12-story art deco F. Edward Hebert Federal Building on Lafayette Square was designed by architects Louis Simon and Howard L. Cheney in 1939.

Lafayette Square, the second oldest urban park in New Orleans is also surrounded by Gallier Hall (formerly City Hall, James Gallier, Sr., 1845), the Federal Reserve Bank (Goldstein, Parham, Labouisse, 1963), the Hale Boggs Federal Building and U.S. Court House (Freret & Wolf, August Perez & Associates, Mathes Bergman & Associates) and the John Minor Wisdom U.S. Court of Appeals (Hale and Rogers, 1908).

Since the city's inception, New Orleans has organized public buildings around public parks, initially with the location of the Cabildo on the Place d'Armes (now Jackson Square) and more recently with the development of the Civic Center (1958) around Duncan Plaza.

[photo: Anthony DelRosario]

Plan of Lake Vista (1936)

2011-03-21T14:37:00.002-05:00

Plan of Lake Vista, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

On September 29, 1936 work began on Lake Vista, a $3 million residential development on New Orleans lakefront sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. The plan of Lake Vista was designed by Hampton Reynolds, consulting engineer for the Orleans Levee Board.

Reynold's radial plan was designed to provide safe passage for children to the community center, school and two churches at the end of Spanish Fort Boulevard in the core of the residential neighborhood. Mr. Reynolds explained, "The plan gives every child of these families a way to go to the community center of the residential park without crossing an automobile highway. We wish to set an example for the country at large to pattern after. This is the age of the automobile and there must be physical protection for children and the less agile. We have sanctuaries of safety for birds, why not for human beings? Another feature of the plan is that the lots are staggered, so that the house on any one lot does not face the house on the next lot, but rather looks through the open space of the first lot."

The first lots were sold on September 18, 1938, developing initially to the west of Spanish Fort Boulevard.

[F. Stock; photo: Works Progress Administration, Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library]

First National Life Insurance Co. (1960)

2011-03-21T10:36:00.002-05:00

First National Life Insurance Co., originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In July of 1960 Thurston B. Martin, president of the First National Life Insurance Company (est. 1914, New Orleans) announced the construction of a new twelve-story glass office building.

The Times-Picayune reported, ''Designed by Mathes Bergman & Associates, the structure will have a porte cochere entry from a circular drive, will be air-conditioned and encased in glass with limestone and granite trim. Three elevators will service the structure which is to be finished with a marble and wood lobby and with stone floors."

The irregular site on Howard, S. Rampart and Dryades was conveniently located near the new Union Passenger Terminal (completed 1955). The building currently houses the offices of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

[photo: M. Saxer, TSA NOVA]

Diaz-Simon Pediatric Clinic (1958)

2011-03-20T15:27:00.003-05:00

Diaz-Simon Pediatric Clinic, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In Idea: the Shaping Force (1987), architect Charles Colbert described the two main ideas which led to the design of the Diaz-Simon Pediatric Clinic on Antonine near Touro Hospital.

'Children's vivid imaginations and their shallow thresholds of pain can make the doctor's office appear to be a dark torture chamber. The design objective of the Antonine Clinic (1958) was to lessen this instinctive fear and create an environment of bright and cheerful playfulness. The Antonine Pediatric Clinic was located upon an undersized lot that had only one real advantage, a large live oak tree. The tree became the most singular element in the overall design. The children's waiting room was located to seem to rest among its branches and was calculated to evoke the thrill of a real tree playhouse.'

Colbert received an Honor Award from the AIA in 1959 for the design. The clinic has been razed, but the tree remains.

[F. Stock; photo: Biographical Files, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries]

The Medical Plaza, Prytania entrance

2011-03-20T15:10:00.001-05:00

The Medical Plaza, Prytania entrance, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1960 Curtis and Davis designed the Medical Plaza at Foucher and Prytania near Touro Hospital.

The building includes a 200 car sub-surface parking garage with elevators leading to the plaza level. Office suites are arranged around central courtyards. The pre-cast concrete building is faced with re-claimed brick from buildings which were razed for its construction. Originally cypress shutters were installed between the brick panels; these have been removed. A raised concrete slab lightened with a waffle pattern shelters the main pedestrian entrance on Prytania.

[F. Stock; photo: S. Day, TSA NOVA]

New Orleans Public Library (1958)

2011-03-20T14:03:00.005-05:00

New Orleans Public Library, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The New Orleans Public Library, the crowning achievement of the Civic Center as planned by Mayor 'Chep' Morrison, opened to the public on December 15, 1958.

Curtis and Davis designed a special anodized aluminum sun screen to filter light in an essentially open plan glass box. The building's harmony is best perceived by its interior spaces, especially from the mezzanine which looks over the central atrium and Japanese courtyard garden.

Goldstein, Parham and Labouisse, and Favrot, Reed, Mathes and Bergman, associate architects. R. P. Farnsworth & Co., contractor. HONORS: Design Award for Public Buildings, Progressive Architecture, 1956. Award of Merit, National Library Awards Program, AIA and ALA, 1963.

[F. Stock; photo: Frank Lotz, Miller, AIA Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries]

House for Tomorrow (1936)

2011-03-20T07:14:00.004-05:00

House of the Future, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

This 'House for Tomorrow' on Henry Clay was designed by Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis (1881-1953), principle draftsman for Moise H. Goldstein, architects.

Curtis served as head of Architecture at Tulane from 1912-1917 and wrote several books: Elements of Graphics (1909), Architectural Composition (1923, 1935), and New Orleans, its Old Houses Shops and Public Buildings (1933). At the time of his death in 1953, he was working on a manuscript entitled, Elements of Modern Architecture.

Curtis influenced generations of New Orleans architects, especially his son, Nathaniel C. 'Buster' Curtis, jr. (1917-1997), who shared his father's love of painting, belief in Modernism, and a respect for historic and regional architecture.

Feibleman’s Department Store / Wyndham Garden

2011-03-19T13:02:00.002-05:00

Feibleman’s Department Store / Wyndham Garden, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The Feibleman Department Store (1931) was designed by Samuel Wilson, Jr. for Moise H. Goldstein architects. The building is best known by New Orleanians as the Sears-Roebuck Store (1936-1991) but was later adapted as the Baronne Plaza Hotel (1998-2009). The hotel was renovated in 2010 and recently re-opened as the Wyndham Garden Baronne Plaza.

A slightly earlier example of Art Deco architecture by Goldstein Architects in the CBD is the National American Bank Building (1929) at 200 Carondelet Street.

Chotin Residence (1957)

2011-03-19T12:40:00.003-05:00

Chotin Residence (FOR SALE), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Architect Charles Joseph Rowe designed s spacious residence on Bayou St. John for Captain and Mrs. Scott Chotin in 1957. It was listed in Samuel Wilson's A Guide to the Architecture of New Orleans, 1699-1959.

The furnishings of the living room and patio were featured in Dixie magazine's "Today's Living" section in 1961 which noted the "wall and fireplace is of Arkansas cedar stone, used throughout home."

The Chotin's listed the house for sale or trade in 1970.

Big--Beautiful--Expensive: Owner may consider trade for smaller home or commercial property. Spacious architect designed California style contemporary. Enter through huge solid walnut double doors into a 63' entry hall, sunken living room with fireplace, 25' informal dining room, 40' den, gym, 5 or 6 bedrooms and 6 baths, ultra modern kitchen, maid's room and bath. Beautifully landscaped patio and 40' heated pool. Grounds 200x235.

The Chotin's sold the house to the Solomon family who recently sold it to Dr. Eric Ehlenberger.

[photo: F. Stock, TSA NOVA]

Dr. Ben Freedman Residence (1957)

2011-03-19T11:44:00.002-05:00

Dr. Ben Freedman Residence (1957), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

This windowless courtyard house at 1321 Frankfort in Lake Terrace was designed by Bill Calongne of Lawrence, Saunders, Calongne for Dr. Ben Freedman. It was awarded Excellence for House Design by Architectural Record in 1958. The house was recently renovated by Philip Langley of Ray Langley Interiors.

[F. Stock; photo: James Lamantia Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries]

Ricciuti Residence (1957)

2011-03-19T11:20:00.005-05:00

Ricciuti Residence, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1957 Italo William Ricciuti (1906-1987) designed this house for himself and his family at 7341 Beryl Street in the Lakeshore neighborhood. The modernist architect also authored two books, New Orleans and Its Environs: The Domestic Architecture 1727-1870 (1937) and Forms & Functions of 20th Century Architecture (1952). With associate architect Herbert A. Benson, Ricciuti designed the Stuart R. Bradley Elementary School (1953, razed 2009) at 2401 Humanity in Gentilly Terrace. In addition he lectured on Italian language and architecture at Tulane University.

[photo: Frank Lotz Miller, AIA Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries]

John Hancock Building (1960-62)

2011-03-17T19:21:00.003-05:00

JohnHancock2, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Gordon Bunschaft's design of the concrete exoskeleton distinguishes the John Hancock Building (now known as K&B Plaza) as the finest of four buildings by corporate architects Skidmore, Owings & Merill in New Orleans. Nolan, Norman & Nolan served as associate architects. Fountain by Isamu Noguchi. AIA Merit Award, 1963.

[F. Stock; photo: TSA NOVA]

Charity Hospital (1939)

2011-03-17T17:59:00.001-05:00

Charity, originally uploaded by M Styborski.

The institution known as Charity Hospital (founded 1736) is almost as old as the city itself (established 1718).

The sixth Charity Hospital building was constructed in 1939 at 1532 Tulane by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, later known as the Public Works Administration. Architects Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth designed the 20-story building, the tallest hospital in New Orleans. It is adorned with bas reliefs by sculptor Enrique Alferez.

Charity has been closed since flooding after Hurricane Katrina. In 2008 the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Charity Hospital among its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Places. The future of this historic building and the 275 year old institution remains uncertain.

[F. Stock; photo: M. Styborski]

Pontchartrain Expressway at St. Charles Avenue

2011-03-16T17:13:00.003-05:00

Pontchartrain Expressway at St. Charles Avenue, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The elevated section of I-10 designated as the Pontchartrain Expressway begins as the interstate crosses the Orleans Parish line at the 17th Street Canal and leads to the Crescent City Connection (1958).

The footprint of the expressway largely follows that of the New Basin Canal, constructed in 1831-38 to facilitate transportation of goods between Lake Pontchartrain and downtown. The canal's significance to New Orleans' shipping declined after the opening of the Industrial Canal in 1923. Most of the New Basin Canal was filled between 1937 - 1950, making way for the Pontchartrain Expressway, Pontchartrain Boulevard and West End.

[photo: TSA NOVA]

HDLC to review request to demolish school listed on World Mounment Fund Watch 2010

2011-03-15T10:41:00.002-05:00

On Friday March 18, 2011 the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission will review the Recovery School District's request to demolish the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School.

Charles R. Colbert considered the Wheatley School his highest accomplishment as an architect and planner. He served the Orleans Parish School Board as Supervising Architect for Planning and Construction from 1951-1953. In 1952 he produced A Continuous Planning and Building Program, a comprehensive study of existing facilities and plans for growth and development. He resigned from this position to dedicate his energies to the practice of architecture.

In 1954 Colbert designed his third school, Phillis Wheatley Elementary a rather spectacular elevated and cantilevered steel truss structure. The school was designed to meet contemporary programmatic needs on a modest urban site in a hot and humid climate. Elevating the school above grade created a wealth of shaded playground space. This also saved the main structure from flooding after Hurricane Katrina. The cantilever and welded steel trusses kept the playground free of obstructing columns which would have been required in a conventional post and beam construction system. The classrooms and restroom facilities are connected by a continuous gallery.

The school was honored nationally with the Top Award by The School Executive, Better School Design Competition. In 1955 Progressive Architecture awarded the design by citation. In 1958 Omer Blodgett, a world renowned structural design engineer, praised the design of this "most unusual and spectacular arc-welded structure" in an article for Progressive Architecture. Wheatley was exhibited internationally by the U.S. State Department in Berlin in 1957 and in Moscow in 1958. In 2008 The Louisiana Landmarks Society recognized the school in its list of New Orleans' Nine Most Endangered. Currently the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School is recognized by the World Monuments Fund 2010 Watch.

Stein's (1947)

2011-03-14T15:03:00.002-05:00

Steins (1947), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1935 Stein's, the New York based men's clothing store, opened their first store in New Orleans on the downtown corner of Canal and Carondelet. In 1947 they moved into a new store designed by August Perez on the uptown corner of Canal and Carondelet.

The 3-story modernistic building was wrapped in cellophane and red ribbons prior to the grand opening ceremony conducted by Mayor DeLesseps S. Morrison on May 15, 1947. The opening of the air conditioned store heralded a 'new era in New Orleans post war merchandising.'

Today the building houses Lady Foot Locker.

[F. Stock; photo: Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library]

YMCA (1960)

2011-03-14T14:18:00.002-05:00

YMCA 1960, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1959 architects Roessle and Von Osthoff designed a new ten-story 186-room dormitory for the Young Men's Christian Association on Lee Circle.

The Times Picayune reported that the facade of the new YMCA "building will be circular in structure to fit the association's concave frontage. It will be encircled by a solar screen of cast stone, an architectural pattern to provide for privacy and protect from sunlight."

This new construction fronting the avenue would also incorporate parts of existing structures on site originally designed by Favrot and Livaudais in 1931 with additions and alterations by Jones and Roessle in 1950.

The YMCA building was renovated and reopened in 2001 as Le Cirque Hotel.

[photo: TSA NOVA]

Robert E. Smith branch, New Orleans Public Library (1956)

2011-03-14T12:44:00.006-05:00

Robert E. Smith branch, New Orleans Public Library (1956), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Real estate agent and contractor Robert E. Smith donated funds to construct the the 12th branch of the New Orleans Public Library on city-owned land at Canal Boulevard and Harrison Avenue in Lakeview.

Designed by architects Albert J. Saputo and Albert C. Ledner in 1954, the Robert E. Smith branch opened in April 1956. The 2400 SF octagonal building featured a pleated 8-gable roof with clerestory beneath. Ledner also used the folded-plate roof design for the National Maritime Union hall on Tchoupitoulas and Washington.

The branch was razed and replaced with a larger structure in 1979. The replacement library building was razed in 2009. Construction of a new library branch is in progress.

[F. Stock; photo: Louisiana Division/City Archives, New Orleans Public Library]

St. Mary's Dominican / Loyola Annex (1968)

2011-03-14T11:27:00.005-05:00

St. Mary's Dominican / Loyola Annex, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

From 1910-1984 St. Mary's Dominican College offered Catholic liberal arts education to young women. In 1967 architect J. Buchanan Blitch designed a modern residential hall for the campus at St. Charles Avenue and Broadway.

Blitch designed the five-story galleried dormitory to complement the historic architecture of Greenville Hall (Wm. Fitzner, 1882). The 220 bed residence hall opened in the fall of 1968.

Dominican College closed in 1984 and sold its campus buildings to Loyola University.

The Glass Menagerie :: exhibition opening

2011-03-10T15:48:00.001-06:00

This exhibit features work by eight New Orleans-based glass artists. Inspired by Tennessee Williams' play of the same name, the installation includes glass art by Mark Morris, Joshua Cohen, Carlos Zervigon, Francine Stock, Althea Holden, Stephen T. Fuller "Drake," Nick van der Does, and Christian Stock. Artists featured in The Glass Menagerie employ a range of techniques--from glass blowing to sandblasting to kiln casting. The resulting visual menagerie presents both thematic and tangible ties to Tennessee Williams' epic play, presenting The Glass Menagerie as you have never seen it before.

Exhibition details:
The Glass Menagerie
March 12 - May 30, 2011

Exhibition Opening:
March 12, 6-10pm
Trouser House
4105 St. Claude Ave
New Orleans, LA 70117

Cabana Club Apartments (1959)

2011-03-10T15:21:00.003-06:00

Cabana Club Apartments 1959, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Architect Bernard J. Aronson designed the Cabana Club Apartments in 1958 on St. Charles Avenue and Conery - the site of the former Madame Desire A. Chaffraix mansion. The 'ultra-modern' 35 unit apartment building was developed by the architect's brother, Norman Aronson, and opened for occupancy October 1, 1959. Amenities included air conditioning, ample closets, wall-to-wall carpeting, and sliding doors opening to the landscaped courtyard and 40' x 16' swimming pool.

[F. Stock; photo: TSA NOVA]

Dr. Lyman K. Richardson Residence (1955, razed)

2011-03-10T14:32:00.004-06:00

Dr. Lyman K. Richardson Residence (1955, razed), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1955 Dr. Walter Gropius juried Progressive Architecture's second annual Design Awards Program.

The Times-Picayune reported, "The designs, which gave New Orleans and Louisiana more awards than any other city or state were done by Curtis and Davis, Charles R. Colbert, John W. Lawrence, George A. Saunders, Buford L. Pickens and John Ekin Dinwiddie. The designs were of six proposed Louisiana buildings."

One of these was a residence for Dr. Lyman K. Richardson designed by Curtis and Davis architects. It stood at 7 Glenwood Avenue in Harahan, but was recently razed for new development.

[photo: Curtis and Davis photos, SEAA]

Mahorner Clinic (1951)

2011-03-10T14:08:00.003-06:00

Mahorner Clinic, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1950 Dr. Howard Mahorner commissioned Curtis and Davis, architects to design a medical clinic to be built on the riverside of St. Charles Avenue near Josephine Street. Curtis and Davis had recently completed an office building for physicians on Louisiana Avenue near Touro Hospital.

The L-shaped building was designed to conform to the lot and to accommodate parking for 25 cars. The exterior of the two-story steel-frame building was finished in brick and stucco. The building was recently renovated for Best Koeppel.

[photo: TSA NOVA]

Physicans' Office Building (1950, razed)

2011-03-10T13:48:00.010-06:00

Doctor's Office Building (1950, razed), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1950 Curtis and Davis designed a medical office building near Touro Hospital at 1520 Louisiana between Prytania and St. Charles. The building contained ten physicians' offices of various sizes on the two main floors with a penthouse office suite and rooftop terrace above. Construction costs were estimated at $150,000. The building has since been razed and is now a surface parking lot.

[photo: 1974. New Orleans Virtual Archive, Tulane School of Architecture]

Union Savings and Loan (1958)

2011-03-10T11:49:00.002-06:00

Union Savings and Loan (1958), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The Union Savings and Loan Association (established 1866) embarked on a significant expansion and renovation of their main office in 1958.

The five-story Union Savings and Loan building at Carondelet and Perdido streets was enlarged and completely re-modeled by Harry Banker Smith of August Perez and Associates. For the exterior Smith composed bands of vertical black porcelain enamel panels, turquoise mosaic tile, Italian marble and aluminum-framed glass in a minimalist fashion.

The Times-Picayune reported on the interior, "The main feature of the lobby is the large curved marble and formica counter which is capable of serving several lines of persons at a time. Walnut paneling, glass partitions, custom-built furnishings and terrazzo floors, with floral arrangements and hand-painted art on the walls are included."

The custom cabinetry, designed and built by Riecke Cabinet Works, remains largely intact. Riecke (established 1905) also built custom furnishings for the National American Bank branch at Lee Circle (razed 2007) and the main court room of the Supreme Court Building in the Civic Center (razed 2008).

[F. Stock; photo: E. Ardoin]

National American Bank Building (1929)

2011-03-10T10:58:00.003-06:00

National American Bank Building (1929), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Moise H. Goldstein Associates designed the 23- story limestone and steel National American Bank Building at 200 Carondelet in the Upper Central Business District. This Modernistic skyscraper is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Jens B. Jensen, Consulting engineer; George T. Glover, contractor.

[photo: Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries]

One Shell Square (1972)

2011-03-10T10:31:00.005-06:00

In April 1970 piles were driven 210 feet deep for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's 51-story office tower for Shell Oil Company in the square bound by Poydras, Carondelet, St. Charles and Perdido streets.

The 212.45 m (697.0 ft) skyscraper, 700 car garage and landscaped plaza were completed in 1972 and recognized as the 'Most Outstanding Structure' in 1974 by the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce. Associate architects were August Perez and Associates. It is the tallest building in New Orleans and the state of Louisiana.

Other local buildings designed by SOM include the Pan American Life Company (2400 Canal), John Hancock Building (1055 St. Charles), and Bank of New Orleans Building (1010 Common).

[F. Stock, photo:New Orleans Virtual Archive Tulane School of Architecture ]

Burglass Furniture Store (1945-47, razed 2008)

2011-03-06T20:15:00.002-06:00

Canal Street Moderne (DEMOLISHED), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1912 Abraham Burglass purchased the site at Canal and S. Liberty streets for his furniture store. The store was completely rebuilt in 1945-1947 by architect Rathbone E. DeBuys (c. 1874 -1960) and contractors Perrilliat-Rickey Construction Company in an art moderne style. The building was razed in January 2008.

[photo: F. Stock, TSA NOVA]

Sarpy Residence (1963)

2011-03-06T10:01:00.003-06:00

Sarpy Residence, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1963 architect Victor Bruno (TU BArch, 1943) designed this duplex at 4101 St. Charles Avenue for attorney A. Lester Sarpy. Bruno had recently completed the Gallery Apartments (2511 St. Charles Avenue).

The Sarpy house was listed in The Architecture of St. Charles Avenue by Susan Lauxman Kirk, 1977.

[photo F. Stock, TSA NOVA]

Work Hard :: Play Harder > It's Carnival Time!

2011-03-03T14:28:00.037-06:00

Above: 'A Project to Humanize Canal Street' a class study created for guest critic Louis I. Kahn 1954-55, drawing by Luther E. Frink (TSA 1955).

Below: Luther Frink as Caesar from streetcar, TSA Beaux Arts Ball, 1954, photo: MG Scheuermann, Jr.

photos: New Orleans Virtual Archive, Tulane School of Architecture

FRANCINE STOCK :: Material Language

2011-03-03T13:34:00.001-06:00

[Francine Stock :: Material Language :: slideshow]

Tulane School of Architecture

presents:
Francine Stock
Material Language
Monday February 28 - Friday March 25, 2011
On view in the Favrot Lobby
Richardson Memorial Hall
8 am - 5 pm daily

GALLERY TALK
Monday March 21, noon

CLOSING RECEPTION
Monday, March 21, 5 pm - 6 pm

National American Bank (Lee Circle branch) 1952-54, razed 2007

2011-02-25T14:01:00.005-06:00

In 1952 the National American Bank of New Orleans (established 1917) announced the selection of Goldstein Parham and Labouisse, architects for the design of a new office on Lee Circle with ample parking and drive-through service. Moise H. Goldstein previously designed the 1929 art deco National American Bank Building at 200 Carondelet which also housed his firm's office.

Boh Brothers were general contractors for the new Lee Circle bank branch and custom cabinetry was provided by Riecke Cabinet Works (established 1905). Riecke also designed and built custom furnishings for the Union Savings and Loan at 353 Carondelet.

The Lee Circle branch of the National American Bank building was razed in 2007. The site remains vacant. [see: demolition photos by Laureen Lentz]

[photo: Moise Goldstein Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries]

K&B Pharmacy (1955)

2011-02-23T11:57:00.008-06:00

K&B Pharmacy, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1905 Gustave Katz and Sydney J. Besthoff opened the first Katz and Besthoff pharmacy at 732 Canal Street. [photo by Jeff Lamb]

In 1955 Katz and Besthoff comissioned Dreyfous, Seiferth and Gibert, architects to design a new K&B "self-service super drug store" with a "complete cosmetic department" at Napoleon and St. Charles avenues. The older store remained open during construction and was later razed to provide for parking. The signature "K&B purple" was ubiquitous on the firm's products, signage, shopping carts and bags. The business expanded throughout New Orleans and the Gulf South until it was sold to the Rite Aid corporation in 1997.

The building has since been razed and replaced with a banking outlet.

[Photo: 1972, New Orleans Virtual Archive, Tulane School of Architecture]

Gallery Apartments (1962)

2011-02-22T13:49:00.003-06:00

In September of 1962 work began on the Gallery Apartments, the first of two residential buildings on St. Charles Avenue designed by architect Victor Bruno (see also: Sarpy Residence, 4101 St. Charles).

Bruno reserved the ground floor of the five story apartments building for parking and a "glass encased lobby." The upper four stories housed 26 apartments of approximately 990 SF each and one 2400 SF penthouse with roof garden.

Noted amenities included a swimming pool, patio, two elevators, and laundry room facilities on each floor. The apartment building also featured private side-galleries and a sculptural concrete sun screen.

[Times-Picayune, 8-26-1962; photo: F. Stock, Tulane School of Architecture New Orleans Virtual Archive]

William G. Zetzmann House

2011-02-21T12:58:00.002-06:00

William G. Zetzmann House, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In the early 1950s Curtis & Davis designed this house at 4030 Vincennes Place in the Fountainebleau neighborhood for William G. Zetzmann, President of the Zetz Seven-Up Bottling Company and one of the founders of the International House and International Trade Mart.

Exterior of the residence has since been significantly altered.

[photos: Tulane School of Architecture New Orleans Virtual Archive]

DESIGNING PAN-AMERICA

2011-02-21T12:42:00.002-06:00

DESIGNING PAN-AMERICA

U.S. Architectural Visions for the Western Hemisphere

ROBERT ALEXANDER GONZÁLEZ

Forward by Robert Rydell

You are cordially invited to attend an exhibition,
lecture & book signing

7pm Tuesday 22 March 2011
Art Deco Welcome Center
1001 Ocean Drive
Miami Beach · FL 33139

www.designingpanamerica.com/

Another msytery modern :: help please!

2011-02-18T14:20:00.001-06:00

Bethany Methodist Church (1957-58), originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1957 the Times-Picayune published this architect's sketch for the Bethany Methodist Church to be built at Mendez and Piety in Pontchartrain Park.

The church took a different form from its initial design shown here, but the fellowship hall maintained the vaulted roof and perforated sun screen. The church was dedicated in 1958, suffered eleven feet of water in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina and has since been restored.

We are seeking any additional information about the history and design of Bethany Methodist.

Gus Mayer Store (1960) RAZED

2011-02-17T13:12:00.003-06:00

In 1958 Jack M. Weiss, president of Gus Mayer Co. Ltd., commissioned Curtis and Davis architects to design a new store at Carrollton and Palmetto. This would be the third Gus Mayer store in New Orleans.

When the store opened March 8, 1960 Councilman Victor Schiro declared the store 'exquisite' and the opening event a 'moment of history for the city of New Orleans.'

The 24,000 SF store featured canopied entrances, a white stucco exterior with black and gold details. This canopy was one of Curtis & Davis' early explorations of vaulted form work, which they later monumentalized in the Rivergate.

-------------------------------

The Times-Picayune, 03-08-1960, p 18

Saratoga Building (1957)

2011-02-15T15:43:00.007-06:00

The 15-story Saratoga Building was designed by Benson and Riehl architects for co-owners Harry Latter and Shepard M. Latter in 1956. The location was prime---across from the Civic Center and new Public Library. It was part of a major construction boom related to the city's expansion in the mid-1950s. The Saratoga Building's 125,000 SF of office space housed many commercial tenants, including a new Hibernia National Bank Civic Center branch office at ground floor.

Like the new Maryland Casualty Building (210 O'Keefe) and National Bank of Commerce (821 Gravier) it featured "piped in" music in elevators and corridors. Artist Jean Seidenberg installed a metal mosaic (lead, copper, brass and steel) inspired by the offshore oil industry.* In October 1957 the first tenants moved in. The adjoining five level parking garage at 222 Loyola Avenue was designed by Diboll-Kessels. R. P. Farnsworth & Co. was general contractor for both buildings.

In 2010 architect Marcel Wisznia began renovating and redeveloping the buildings as The Saratoga: "a new type of apartment building created for the movers-and-shakers of the “new” New Orleans. This isn’t your granddaddy’s wrought iron and pastel paint: The Saratoga is fifteen stories of studio, one- and two-bedroom units fully outfitted with modern amenities – and all with a 1950’s vintage swagger."

[photo: Times-Picayune advertisement, October 21, 1957]

------------------------------------
note: Siedenberg was commissioned to create a mosaic for Charles Colbert's Motel de Ville in 1955. The mosaic was destroyed when the buildng was razed.

Abe Wiener Apartments (1950)

2011-02-14T14:34:00.003-06:00

Abe Wiener Apartments, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Architect Bernard J. Aronson (TSA '40), a native of New Orleans, designed two apartment buildings on St. Charles Avenue.

The first was a terraced complex of four luxury apartments for Abe Wiener at St. Charles and Valmont. The varied floor plans and massing of the units distinguish this complex from other apartment buildings along the Avenue. The four units open onto central patios and terraces paved with quarry tile.

In 1958 Aronson designed the Cabana Club Apartments at St. Charles and Conery.

[photo: F. Stock, TSA NOVA]

'Garden Apartments' (1939)

2011-02-12T21:33:00.004-06:00

Garden Apartments, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

New Orleans Architecture, vol. VII: Jefferson City notes an "influence of European modernism" in the design of architect Albert Theard's 'garden apartments' on St. Charles Avenue at Milan.

"The corner windows indicate an interior framework that renders the exterior a 'skin.' A few scant Art Deco details ornament the windows. The site arrangement around a garden is designed as departure from the more monolithic high-rise apartment type."

The brick facade has been painted light pink for at least two decades.

[Friends of the Cabildo, New Orleans Architecture vol. VII, p. 161, photo: Francine Stock]

National Bank of Commerce Building (1957)

2011-02-01T14:30:00.002-06:00

cbd 167, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

This 17-story commercial office building and parking garage was designed for the National Bank of Commerce by Nolan, Norman and Nolan Architects in 1956 and completed in 1957. The site at 821 Gravier was a former parking lot purchased by NBC in 1950. The reinforced concrete building features operable aluminum and glass casement windows. The building included a bank lobby on the ground floor, four floors of parking, and twelve floors of commercial office space.

photo: S. Burroughs

A & G Cafeteria (1968)

2011-01-31T11:58:00.003-06:00

A & G Cafeteria 1968, 2627 Canal Street, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The first A & G Restaurant in New Orleans opened in 1932 at the intersection of Canal and N. Broad streets. The original restaurant was replaced in 1947 with a new glass and brick building in the streamline moderne style. This building was significantly remodeled by August Perez and Associates and reopened as the A & G Cafeteria on November 21, 1968. The cafeteria has since been razed and replaced by a Rite Aid Pharmacy.
[photo: Tulane School of Architecture New Orleans Virtual Archive]

America Fore Insurance Group Building (1957)

2011-01-13T14:01:00.038-06:00

America Fore Insurance Group Building, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1956 construction began on a new four story contemporary structure on Canal Street. The commercial office building was designed by Curtis and Davis architects for the Canal Realty Corporation for the newly consolidated America Fore Insurance Group.

The ground floor lobby will boast special wall tiles imported from Italy. Wide terrazzo steps from the sidewalks to the lobby will be flanked by tropical landscaping extending the width of the building. Upper floors will be enclosed with brick masonry walls and aluminum framed glass curtain walls with insulated spandrel panels. The elevation on Canal will have horizontal balcony type sunshades with floating marble vertical sunshade panels between.

The America Fore Insurance Group building was completed in 1957. Curtis and Davis later designed three other buildings on Canal.

The Caribe Building (2475 Canal) was completed in 1958 and housed the offices of the architecture firm. The Automotive Life Building (4140 Canal) was completed in 1963. In 2010 it was designated a Historic Landmark by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission. The Rivergate (2 Canal) was completed in 1968 and demolished in 1995 for Harrah's Casino.

To learn more about modern architecture on Canal Street, please see DOCOMOMO Louisiana's Canal Streetcar tour.

Times-Picayune States Item 05-20-1956

Chapel of the Holy Spirit

2011-01-11T14:30:00.004-06:00

Chapel of the Holy Spirit, photo by Francine Stock, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The Chapel of the Holy Spirit at 1100 S. Broadway was originally designed as part of the Francis Lister Hawks Episcopal Student Center for Tulane-Newcomb and named for Rev. F.L. Hawks, first President of Tulane University. According to a brochure in the University Archives, the "contemporary architecture of the Chapel symbolizes hands folded in prayer."

The chapel was designed by architect Claude E. Hooton and completed in 1956. Mr. Hooton had previously designed the International Style Texaco Building at 1501 Canal Street. Hooton also worked as an associate architect with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill on the Pan American Life Insurance Company headquarters at 2400 Canal Street. Both the former Texaco Building and PALIC have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lecture on the French Quarter in the early 20th century

2011-01-05T14:43:00.002-06:00

Party like it's 1952

2010-12-16T14:54:00.000-06:00

1952 Beaux Arts Ball, Tulane School of Architecture Visual Media Archive

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM REGIONAL MODERNISM

Character study in Kodachrome

2010-12-13T15:20:00.004-06:00

Joe Donaldson, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

I've had the distinct pleasure of sorting through old kodachromes recently. This is one of my favorites. It was in a collection of "People" at Tulane School of Architecture and dated 1952.

"Joe Donaldson taught one class in watercolor for part of the year. I don't remember much about him except he was quite a character. He was a very talented man and very talented in teaching. It was interesting to watch him talk, because he had this habit of chain smoking and smoking two or three cigarettes at one time not realizing he had them lit. He would be on the board with chalk and cigarettes between his fingers and trying to write with the cigarette on the board. it was quite an interesting site. He was a very good teacher, a very good artist."

Milton Scheuermann, Jr. (TSA 1956) in Talk About Architecture

---------------------

UPDATE 12/16/10

Joe Donaldson (1914-1997) was born in New Orleans and Studied art at the Chicago Art Institute and Tulane University as well as with Enrique Alferez. He participated in the WPA Fine Art project in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950-1952 he taught drawing and painting at Tulane University School of Architecture. To read more and to view some of his drawings and paintings see the The Joseph Donaldson, Jr. Memorial On-line Museum.

Is there a future for the recent past in New Orleans?

2010-12-08T14:26:00.006-06:00

Francine Stock, president of DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana, writes about the current situation of the mid-century public schools in the city. Either demolished or in danger of demolition, these structures represent a type of architecture that was forward thinking and innovative in the way they were built and used by the public. The process to discuss their future when they become obsolete has failed to provide a fair space to listen to new options. Can we establish another way of approaching this problem?

read more..... MAS Context 8 | PUBLIC WINTER 10

structure :: spirit :: sustainability

2010-11-29T11:50:00.005-06:00

Phillis Wheatley Elmentary School, 1955, Charles R. Colbert, photo by Emily Ardoin

Regional Modernism is not just about documenting modern buildings in New Orleans, but also discovering their language of forms in relation to the environment and cultural landscape.

Back in April, I defined regionalism as a "syncretic approach to design, exhibiting a consciousness of both environmental forces and vernacular forms." A syncretic approach is one which attempts to reconcile two seemingly disparate methods. In this case, combining the purity of purpose and abstraction associated with high Modernism with the essential wisdom of our vernacular architecture's refined relationship to the environment.

New Orleans modernists were faced with relatively the same landscape and climate as their forebears - semi-tropical and surrounded by water. In Buildings of Louisiana Karen Kingsley outlines how the environment influenced the shape of our architecture.

1) Raising the building off the ground not only protects from flooding, but also improving the chances of a favorable breeze on the second story with the added benefit of less mosquitos.
2) Deep galleries shade the walls, protect them from rain and provide outdoor living and sleeping space. These were also often used for circulation between rooms instead of an internal corridor.
3) Windows and doors were aligned to provide cross-ventilation.
4) High ceilings and steep roof pitches draw off heat.
5) Cypress was in abundant supply and resistant to rot and became a primary building material.

The first three characteristics are significant elements in the design of the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School: the primary structure is raised on piers, saving classrooms from flooding, deep galleries connect the classrooms and overlook interior the courtyard, and the alignment of windows and doors allows for favorable air circulation. These sustainable design strategies are shared with our most significant historic homes including Madame John's Legacy (1795) and the Pitot House (1799). Yet the spirit of the Phillis Wheatley structure is thoroughly modern as evidenced by its cantilevered steel trusses, transparent skin and bold concrete piers.

And then there will be one.

2010-11-24T11:36:00.000-06:00

Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center (originally McDonogh 36 Elementary School (1954, Sol Rosenthal and Charles R. Colbert) renovated 2010 by John C. Williams. photograph by Francine Stock

In a field of lost opportunities we have a singular instance of adaptive reuse. McDonogh 36 Elementary School was the only school from the 1950s not slated for demolition by the School Facilities Master Plan. The school was renovated by architect John C. Williams for a non-profit foundation and re-opened in 2010 as the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center. During renovation the facility was stripped bare to the concrete and steel structure, shedding years of unsympathetic alterations and redundant mechanical systems.

The form is a fusion of a ‘finger plan’ school with a double galleried plantation house. Mature live oaks inhabit the courtyards between the wings. Initial concerns that the final product could trend toward the phony colonial were unnecessary. The modernist spirit survived. The renovation includes walls of operable windows and an open air circulation gallery. The new program is brilliant and the renovation reminds us how modern school facilities could be retrofitted to serve the community in new ways if only given the chance.

4 :: 3 :: 2 :: 1 :: Carver School Faces Imminent Demolition

2010-11-05T12:00:00.004-05:00

Carver High School Auditorium, 3059 Higgins Boulevard, New Orleans, LA (1958, Curtis and Davis, architects). Progressive Architecture First Design Award 1957, New Orleans Nine Most Endangered 2008, Eligible for National Register, Demolition permit: November 1, 2010. Photo: Francine Stock

In the past two years the mid 20th century modern public school has become an endangered species in New Orleans. Of the city's thirty public schools designed and built in the 1950s, today only four are left standing. Soon only one may remain.

Earlier this week the City of New Orleans issued a demolition permit for the George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School designed by Curtis and Davis, architects. The Helen Sylvania Edwards Elementary School shared many campus facilities with Carver, but has already been demolished. The integration of three schools (elementary, junior and senior high) on a 65 acre campus in the upper ninth ward allowed the schools to share common facilities (cafeteria, kitchen, auditorium) and yet retain age-segregated classroom buildings. The auditorium was also available in the evening for community events. The striking design of the auditorium with its soaring (40 ft high and 200 ft long) parabolic concrete vault and hinged buttresses is truly monumental. The Federal Emergency Management Association determined the Carver auditorium building eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana advocated for the auditorium structure to be retained as part of a new campus plan and suggested that it be adaptively reused as an open air pavilion. Unfortunately, the auditorium will be demolished with the remaining buildings on campus.

The concept of a "school village" was first articulated by architect and planner Charles R. Colbert in 1952 in A Continuous Planning and Building Program, an analysis of existing public school facilities in New Orleans and plans for expansion. The city had not built a single school facility in the 1940s and the population was rapidly expanding. Urban land values in center of the city were twenty times higher than in the newer suburbs. Selecting a site of "ninety beautifully wooded acres, at the edge of urban development, six miles away" from the densely populated center of New Orleans would save six million dollars in land acquisition. Colbert calculated that this savings would support nearly a century of "quality bus transportation." Colbert envisioned the buses as "mobile classrooms." The teachers would travel with the students and with a set of visual aids to extend classroom instruction during the commute to their "semi-rural, college-like campus." Though the mobile classrooms never materialized, Colbert's idea of a "school village" formed the basis of the Carver campus plan designed by Curtis and Davis.

In It Happened by Design, architect Arthur Q. Davis recalled that the firm initially was contracted to design a senior high school, a portion of the site allocated for a junior high to be designed by another firm, and room left over for a future elementary school. Curtis and Davis convinced the school board that it was more economical to develop the three schools as part of an overall campus plan from the beginning. The board approved their plan for a more efficient campus of ten buildings linked by covered walkways. In 1957 the plan of the Carver schools gained national recognition winning both Progressive Architecture's First Design Award and the American Institute of Architects' Best Overall Plan for a School Complex.

The 2008 School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish (SFMPOP) called for the demolition of the Carver School suggesting "complete replacement." In fact, the SFMPOP called for the near eradication of the 1950s public schools. The only facility from the era reserved for the future by the SFMPOP is McDonogh 36 (1954, Sol Rosenthal and Charles R. Colbert). This school has been renovated by John C. Williams and reopened this year as the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center.

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana successfully nominated Carver and three other schools to the Louisiana Landmarks Most Endangered List in 2008. McDonogh 39 Elementary School (1952, Goldstein, Paham and Labouisse; Freret and Wolf, Curtis and Davis, associate architects) the first modern school in New Orleans was demolished earlier this year without review. McDonogh 39 (later renamed after local civil rights activist Avery Alexander) was in Gentilly and thus outside of the Neighborhood Council District Review Committee.

FEMA also determined that the classroom buildings at Thomy Lafon Elementary School (1954, Curtis and Davis) and the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School (1955, Charles R. Colbert) were eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The Recovery School District's desire to use public funds to demolish these historic structures triggered a Section 106 consultation in accordance with the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act. This bought these facilities some time during the consultation process, but they are likely to be demolished in the coming year.

Idea: the Shaping Force, Charles R. Colbert, 1987, Pendaya Publications

It Happened by Design, Arthur Q. Davis, 2008, University Press of Mississippi

Modern on the Market :: Lakewood South

2010-10-20T18:04:00.007-05:00

The James Trotter Residence at 5414 Bellaire Drive in Lakewood South was designed in 1973 by Nolan, Norman and Nolan architects. The spacious great room with upper gallery is flanked by walls of windows overlooking the pool, pond and spa. Both the two-story cabana and the main house have steep pyramidal double hip roofs which help cool the structures and channel the rain.*

The broken pitch roof (combining a steep central pitch and broader lower pitch) was developed by Louisiana creole builders, as they adapted a roof of Norman origins to our sub-tropical climate.** The lower pitch typically encompassed exterior galleries surrounding the interior core.

The Trotter House was recently renovated by architect Alfred "Pio" Lyons of Lyons and Hudson, architects of the National D-Day Museum. The Trotter-Lyons Residence is now on the market with Latter & Blum.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Charles Colbert first used a pyramidal roof in his 1955 Milne Classroom. The Simon Residence on Octavia Street (1959) incorporates four pyramidal pavilions.

** A Creole Lexicon: architecture, landscape, people by Jay Dearborn Edwards and Nicolas Kariouk Pecquet du Bellay de Verton

TSA Geodesic Dome project 01 1954

2010-09-07T15:46:00.004-05:00

TSA Geodesic Dome project 01 1954, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) served a six-week term as visiting critic at Tulane School of Architecture in February and March of 1954. Fifth-year students worked with Fuller to create this 18 foot geodesic dome model of a potential shelter or airplane maintenance hangar for the Marines. Here students raise the lightweight yet sturdy model on the quad of Tulane's front campus.

The Tulane geodesic dome model was constructed of cardboard formed into triangles, painted with plastic and joined with tape. According to an article in the April 1954 edition of The Tulanian, the dome was to be packaged and sent to the military base at Quantico, Virginia accompanied by Dean John Ekin Dinwiddie and several students. They would reassemble the model there for military inspection and it would soon undergo mass production.

I am not sure if the geodesic domes ever went into military production. However in 1958 Fuller returned to Louisiana to construct the Union Tank Car Dome outside Baton Rouge. Upon completion the 384 foot diameter dome was the largest clear span structure in the world and the largest structure of its type.

Tomorrow night please join AIA New Orleans and DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana in a free screening and the Louisiana premiere of director Evan Mather's

A NECCESSARY RUIN: THE STORY OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER AND THE UNION TANK CAR DOME

Wednesday September 8, 2010
Reception at 7, Screening at 8
AIA New Orleans Center for Design
1000 St. Charles Avenue

A Necessary Ruin

2010-09-06T07:33:00.004-05:00

A Necessary Ruin, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The Sazerac Bar + Edward B. Silverstein

2010-09-03T11:09:00.004-05:00

nola-sazerac bar, originally uploaded by imperturbe.

In 1949 Weiss and Silverstein architects designed the Baronne Street entrance for the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel. Leon C. Weiss (1882-1953) was at the end of his storied career - Silverstein near the beginning.

In 1953 Edward B. Silverstein and Associates designed the international style Ponchartrain Motor Company building at 701 Baronne. The 40,000 square foot building most recently known as Sewell Cadillac is now under renovation by John C. Williams for Rouses Supermarkets.

Silverstein also collaborated with Curtis and Davis architects, most notably as an associate for the Tulane Student Center, Rivergate and Superdome.

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School :: fading fast

2010-09-02T09:26:00.002-05:00

Phillis Wheatley Elementary (going... going...., originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

The Recovery School District abandoned the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School after Hurricane Katrina. The RSD intends to demolish the facility and replace it with new construction. It was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places which triggered a FEMA 106 consultation. Docomomo Louisiana has been an active advocate for its preservation. It was named to the World Monuments Fund Watch List 2010. In August 2010 The WMF, Docomomo US and Louisiana chapters, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Resource Center and AIA New Orleans presented the RSD with a proposal for a free, short term design charrette to explore design solutions to adaptive reuse of this historic modern school. FEMA and the RSD refused this offer and the school will likely be demolished soon.

abstract vernacular :: modernism in the humid south

2010-08-31T09:57:00.001-05:00

Dr. Henry G. Simon Residence, 1961, Charles R. Colbert architect. 922 Octavia Street, New Orleans, LA. Progressive Architecture

It's probably too late to rename this blog, but I absolutely love the term "abstract vernacular." I just came up with it in an attempt to describe works that formally express a modern spirit while integrating the wisdom of our ancestors to design for and with our environment and landscape.

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome

2010-08-21T13:23:00.009-05:00

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana and AIA New Orleans present the Louisiana premiere of

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome
a documentary film by Evan Mather
Wednesday September 8, 2010
reception @ 7pm, screening @ 8pm
AIA New Orleans Center for Design
1000 St. Charles Avenue

Upon its completion in October 1958, the Union Tank Car Dome, located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the largest clear-span structure in the world. Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, this geodesic dome was, at 384 feet in diameter, the first large scale example of this building type. A Necessary Ruin relates the powerful, compelling narrative of the dome’s history via interviews with architects, engineers, preservationists, media, and artists; animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility; and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the dome’s construction, decline, and demolition. (Evan Mather, U.S.A., 2009, 29:54)

hand crafted films

National Trust :: Modernism in New Orleans

2010-08-04T10:54:00.001-05:00

Many of the Big Easy's Midcentury Buildings Face Demolition.

By Jennifer Farwell | Online Only | Aug. 2, 2010

Whitney Bank, New Orleans

Credit: Trevor Meeks

The year is 1955; the place, New Orleans. Progressive Architecture magazine has just held its second annual Design Awards, juried by Bauhaus School founder Walter Gropius. The list of winners brings a surprise: New Orleans and Louisiana capture six of the awards—more than any other city and state in the nation. The awards recognize the work of five different architectural teams, including the noted firm Curtis and Davis, whose later work will include the 1975 Superdome.

New Orleans :: most Progressive Architecture awards :: 1955

2010-07-14T13:36:00.007-05:00

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1955 the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School was awarded a citation for its innovative design by Progressive Architecture. "All of the 22 classrooms for 770 pupils were raised off the ground, in order to provide an open play area, as the building occupies the major part of the site. Two rows of concrete piers support the cantilevered structure. A series of large steel trusses sandwiched between the classroom walls make this cantilever possible. Classrooms are accessible from open corridors, have bilateral lighting and cross ventilation. Administration and combination auditorium / cafeteria are housed in adjoining one-story structure."

In addition to Phillis Wheatley, five other designs by New Orleans architects received awards in Progressive Architecture's second annual Design Awards Program juried by Dr. Walter Gropius.

The Times-Picayune reports, "The designs, which gave New Orleans and Louisiana more awards than any other city or state were done by Curtis and Davis, Charles R. Colbert, John W. Lawrence, George A. Saunders, Buford L. Pickens and John Ekin Dinwiddie. The designs were of six proposed Louisiana buildings."

The envelope please.....

HEALTHCARE Madison Parish Hospital in Tullulah, Curtis and Davis

EDUCATION Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in New Orleans, Charles R. Colbert

RESIDENTIAL Dr. and Mrs. Lyman K. Richardson Residence in Harahan, Curtis and Davis

RESIDENTIAL Vacation House in Lacombe, Lawrence and Saunders

RESIDENTIAL General Electric demonstration house in New Orleans, John Lawrence and George A. Saunders with Buford L. Pickens

RELIGIOUS St. Bernard Methodist Church in Chalmette, John Lawrence and George A. Saunders with John Dinwiddie

The Futurist on Film

2010-07-13T14:29:00.005-05:00

Union Tank Car Dome, photograph by Alfred Gebhardt, originally uploaded by anthonyb_chicago.

Yesterday MAKE magazine celebrated Buckminster Fuller's birthday. He would have been 115 years young.

I recently watched Evan Mather's A Necessary Ruin (Handcrafted Films 2009). When the Union Tank Car Dome outside Baton Rouge was completed in 1958 it was the largest clear span structure in the world. This futurist dome was no longer in use and had been abandoned. The Foundation for Historical Louisiana fought for its adaptive reuse, even suggesting that it could be moved to an alternate site. However, the dome was demolished in the secret of night in November 2007, just shy of its fiftieth birthday.

In September DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana will present A Necessary Ruin in a special screening. Date and location to be announced.

Western Skies Motel

2010-07-01T14:25:00.004-05:00

Western Skies Motel, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

I've been trolling around the Times-Picayune archive online and found this plan for a thoroughly modern motel for New Orleans. It was designed by Houston architect Bailey A. Swenson.

To be called 'Western Skies' the motel will have air-conditioned units, a swimming pool, helicopter field, playground for children, a swank restaurant and riding stables.

The article did not specify a location and I have been unable to find another reference. I assume it was unbuilt. But the sheer grandeur of this motor hotel speaks to the lost days of urban growth and the early days of the oil economy.

source: The Times-Picayune; 06-27-1954; Page: 78

defining regionalism :: take two

2010-06-29T18:37:00.003-05:00

Mollere Summer House, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

"All good architecture has a close relation to the environment."
- Nathaniel Courtlandt Curtis, 1936

The concept of 'regionalism' is inherent to the image of New Orleans architecture. Memories and perceptions of our built environment and landscape are very specific and rooted in this place. Our courtyards are rich with tropical greens and our galleries protect us from the rain and sun. These formal elements transcend time and connect us again and again to this place.

Regionalism may be defined here as a sense of belonging, exhibiting shared characteristics which connect us to the past and connect a building to both its neighborhood and the natural environment.

Mississippi Coast :: Lost Moderns

2010-06-28T13:59:00.004-05:00

Roy Residence 1956, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

In 1956 New Orleans architect and Mississippi native W.F. Calongne (b. 1921) designed a summer house for Mr. and Mrs. J. Folse Roy in Waveland. The design received a Progressive Architecture Design Award.

The Roy House will be on the beach facing the Mississippi Sound and will be used as a summer residence and week-end home during winter. It will be one room deep only to permit the breezes from the water to circulate freely. Large screened galleries will run the length of the home on both sides, and the narrow end walls will be solid. Inside, all partitions will stop within one foot of the ceiling to allow cross ventilation.

The house was a victim of Hurricane Camille in 1969. Camille also destroyed Frank Lloyd Wright's waterfront house for B.F. Fuller in Pass Christian. Bruce Goff's space age home for Emil Gutman (1958) in Gulfport was destroyed by fire.

For more information on Preservation in Mississippi, visit http://misspreservation.com

source: Times-Picayune January 29, 1956

Victor Bruno, architect :: an introduction

2010-05-27T14:46:00.006-05:00

Victor Bruno, architect, standing before display of annual christmas cards he has designed and sent to friends and family over the past sixty years. photo: Francine Stock. originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting the architect Victor Bruno and his lovely wife Jeanne Bruno at their Fontainebleau home. Mr. Bruno designed and built the house in 1993. He was a classmate and colleague of William Calongne, Nathaniel Curtis, Arthur Q. Davis, John Desmond, James Lamantia and Albert C. Ledner at the Tulane School of Architecture. After receiving his BArch in 1943 he was drafted by the Army. He returned to Tulane for his Master's degree and graduated in 1947. As a keen admirer of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and son of a master cabinet maker, Bruno took craftsmanship and the art of building seriously. While apprenticeships were not required at the time, Bruno decided he needed to know how to build. Before opening his architectural office, he worked for the contractor Lionel Favret on the construction of the Blue Plate Building designed by August Perez.

"It's great to see the old place: A letter to the editor"

2010-05-20T13:27:00.005-05:00

Saturday's Inside Out included a feature on the "Breaux Mart" house in Vista Park which has been recently restored by designer Marie Taylor.

Natural light shows off eclectic interior elements in Vista Park mid-century modern home By Karen Taylor Gist

Thursday's letter to the editor from Lynne Breaux identifies the architect as Victor Bruno. I've contacted him and we will be meeting later this week.

from the Times-Picayune

By Letters to the Editor

May 20, 2010, 1:29AM

Re: "Light show," InsideOut, May 15.

"They call it the Breaux Mart house because someone who owned the store used to live there..."

That someone was my father, Prosper Paul Breaux, founder of Breaux Mart, who, along with his wife, Adrienne Gaudin Breaux, and eight children lived in the Lake Vista home.

It was -- and now is again -- quite a house and was featured in The Times-Picayune when it was first built in 1960.

Thank you to Marie Taylor for her evocative modernization in keeping with the original vision and spirit of Victor Bruno, the architect, and my father.

Thank you to Karen Taylor Gist for capturing the specialness of our home.

Her article with its lovely photos and descriptions does much to ease the bleak memories of my last poignant post-Katrina view of the house.

To see it in its current reincarnation is a joy.

Lynne Breaux

Washington

“A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome”

2010-05-17T15:06:00.002-05:00

A Necessary Ruin - Trailer from Evan Mather on Vimeo.

Upon its completion in October 1958, the Union Tank Car Dome, located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the largest clear-span structure in the world. Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, this geodesic dome was, at 384 feet in diameter, the first large scale example of this building type. A Necessary Ruin relates the powerful, compelling narrative of the dome’s history via interviews with architects, engineers, preservationists, media, and artists; animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility; and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the dome’s construction, decline, and demolition. (Evan Mather, U.S.A., 2009, 29:54)

John Stubbs @ HNOC May 10 :: Louisiana Landmarks Martha Robinson Lecture

2010-05-08T15:34:00.001-05:00

John H. Stubbs, Vice President for Field Projects, joined the World Monuments Fund as Director of Programs in 1990, and was named Vice President in 1996. He is a graduate of Columbia University’s master’s program in Historic Preservation and was a UNESCO Fellow at ICCROM’s Architectural Conservation course in Rome. In addition to his work at WMF, Mr. Stubbs is Adjunct Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University. Prior to joining WMF, Mr. Stubbs served for ten years as Assistant Director of Historic Preservation Projects at Beyer Blinder Belle, Architects and Planners, and worked as a historical architect for the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is chairman of the James Marston Fitch Foundation and, until winter 2007, served for six years as a trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America.

http://www.wmf.org/content/staff

defining regionalism :: take one

2010-04-22T16:56:00.003-05:00

Bayou Sauvage, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

regionalism =(df) a syncretic approach to design, exhibiting a consciousness of both environmental forces and vernacular forms.

"Buildings as well as people tend to return to a state of nature more quickly in the South than in the North and West. Whatever may be said of the economic consequences of this fact, it is an advantage for architecture. Here in the South there is a sort of natural heritage of the picturesque akin to the older civilizations of Europe, something the artist would consider of value, and which in a measure should be retained."

- Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis 1936

The Child is the Monument

2010-04-19T12:22:00.009-05:00

The Child is the Monument, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Thirty thousand people attended an exhibit of revolutionary school construction designed by students of Prof. Charles Colbert, Tulane. Colbert above left, and Edwin Eley, assistant head of Orleans Parish Public Schools, check the exhibit.

In the 1950s thirty new public schools were constructed in New Orleans. The drive to modernize school facilities was spearheaded by Charles R. Colbert (1921-2007). In 1948 this young assistant professor at Tulane coordinated a 2nd year studio focused on designing modern schools suitable to our climate and sensitive to the needs of children. The subsequent public exhibition of this student work was viewed by 30,000 New Orleanians. “They went away all steamed up over such items as modern, soft-finish, non-glare desk tops; light-absorbing, easy on-the-eyes green chalk boards instead of old-fashioned blackboards; glass wall blocks which filter light and produce a soothing indirect illumination in the classroom; windows on two sides; ‘orientation’ toward prevailing breezes-----and all this at a smaller cost per foot than is usual for conventional school buildings.”

Colbert served for two years as Supervising Architect for Planning and Construction for the Orleans Parish School Board. In 1952 he produced A Continuous Planning and Building Program, a comprehensive study of existing facilities and plans for growth and development. The following spring Colbert resigned from this position as planner to focus on his architectural practice. And to practice what he preached.

‘The Child Is The Monument’ by Helena Huntington Smith, Colliers, September 3, 1949

Vintage Lustron Home for Sale in Shreveport

2010-04-14T09:37:00.004-05:00

Lustron for Sale, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

THIS IS A ONE OF A KIND HOME CALLED A "LUSTRON HOME". MADE OF STEEL WITH PORCELAIN COATED EXTERIOR PANELS,STEEL FRAMING,STEEL INTERIOR WALLS AND CEILINGS AND MAINTENANCE FREE. LOOK IT UP ON THE WEB.

http://lustronpreservation.org

YOUR GREEN BUYERS WILL LOVE THIS!!

3906 Akard, Shreveport, LA 71105
Single Family Home
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 1
Square Feet: 1,440
Year Built: 1949
MLS Number: 119911

Contact Donna Smith
(318) 686-4690

www.century21spigener.com/property/property.asp?PRM_MLSNu...

notes on treme

2010-04-13T14:24:00.010-05:00

The opening montage of David Simon's Treme features a series of images of floodlines on buildings, some verging on abstraction. The final image was similar to the one above of a streamline moderne "House of the Future" on Canal Blvd. It was nearly demolished two years ago, but has since been renovated.

The closing scene of the pilot episode is set outside the Payne Memorial A.M.E. Church on S. Liberty in Central City. This is just one of hundreds of little churches embedded in our back-of-town neighborhoods.

In this case, the church is open, but sadly many of the shotguns in the neighborhood remain shuttered. I like that Simon weaves a bit of Central City, the Lakefront and especially modern architecture into his vision. Twentieth century architecture is all around us in New Orleans but rarely seen, especially not by the ad man or filmmaker. Thanks, Mr. Simon for noticing.

"House of the Future" August Perez, c. 1940. 6855 Canal Blvd. New Orleans LA photo: Francine Stock

Payne Memorial A.M.E. Church, 3306 S. Liberty Street, Central City, New Orleans, LA. photo: Francine Stock

FOUND! Presentation drawings of the Wheatley School (1954)

2010-03-20T11:36:00.005-05:00

On Thursday I took a day-trip to the Lakefront to search for documents related to the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in the Orleans Parish School Board archives at Special Collections, UNO Library. I had low expectations and never dreamed we'd actually find THE drawings. I was told to look for Colbert's correspondence file, as sometimes architects tuck a sketch in with a letter.

It was a long shot and also happened to be an absolutely gorgeous day. I took nearly two hours to get to the library, as I kept stopping to take photos of modernist houses along the way. The first one to stop me in my tracks had tile which reminded me of Albert Ledner's National Maritime Union at Washington and Tchoupitoulas.* Later in the day I learned that this house at 4119 Vincennes was indeed designed by Ledner in 1954 for Irving Roth. photo

Next I photographed a series of houses on Lakeshore Drive, including Ledner's Moradian House (1978). photos I was almost at UNO, but then forced to turn off Lakeshore Drive due to road closure. This detour took me back through Lake Terrace on Oriole. More gems.

Finally turned on my blinders and made it over to the UNO Library and up to Special Collections on the 4th floor. Within minutes I was presented with binders of finding aids which led me rather quickly to absolute success.

We have been searching for drawings of the Wheatley School for years. Mr. Colbert lost his personal archive when his house flooded. Representatives of the Recovery School District told us the OPSB archives had flooded as well, so IF they had drawings, they were likely lost in the soup and tossed. Thank goodness they were wrong. About ten minutes after entering the UNO Library I was holding a set of nine presentation drawings of the Wheatley School from 1954. The drawings have been digitized and I will write more specifically about them as well Colbert's correspondence soon.

Upon leaving UNO, I called Keli Rylance at SEAA to share the good news. She gave me another address to seek out as well which led me to photograph one of the oldest homes in Lake Vista. photo

All in all, an absolutely brilliant day.

-------------------------

* Sadly the NMU tile was recently stuccoed in a renovation. photo

A great day on Canal Street

2010-03-12T17:56:00.006-06:00

City Council upholds the HDLC designation of the Automotive Life Building (Curtis and Davis) at 4140 Canal.
Pan American Life Insurance Co. (2400 Canal, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, 1952) to get an historic restoration.
see press release at http://docomomo-nola.blogspot.com

Demolition Permit for 1st Modern School in New Orleans

2010-03-04T14:21:00.004-06:00

Permit here. View vintage photo in The Historic New Orleans Collection

The Avery Alexander (McDonogh 39) Elementary School in Gentilly (3800 St. Roch Avenue) was designed by Curtis and Davis in 1952. It was recognized as a model facility and was the first modern school built in New Orleans. This is a "finger school" in plan, with four lengths of classrooms connected at one end to a broad wing of administrative offices, the library and auditorium. The bands of classrooms are connected by an exterior corridor on one side. Both sides of the classrooms and the hall have operable aluminum and glass windows, so they benefit from ample natural light and ventilation. In addition, the hall also filters the sunlight from the classroom, reducing heat gain. Grassy courtyards fill the space between the stretches of classrooms. While the school flooded post-Katrina, the design of the structure is historically significant and appropriate to our climate.

In 2008 the Louisiana Landmarks Society acknowledged McDonogh 39 along with Wheatley, Lafon and Carver Schools in its New Orleans Nine Most Endangered List. The school is outside the jurisdiction of the NCDC, so the demolition permit was granted without review.

Nominations to the 2010 New Orleans Nine Most Endangered List are due March 22. [info, forms]

docomomo_nola

2010-03-03T10:46:00.006-06:00

At the end of February Docomomo New Orleans convened to elect new officers. I am honored to be President and excited to be partnered with Vice-President Wayne Troyer, Treasurer Hilairie Shackai and Secretary Maryann Miller. We are thrilled to welcome Interns Lindsey Derrington and Ian Daniels of the Tulane School of Architecture Historic Preservation program.

We are working on establishing an active agenda for the spring, but first would like to take a few moments to review the impressive accomplishments and significant challenges of our recent past.

2008. Docomomo US officially recognized the Louisiana / New Orleans chapter under the leadership of President Toni DiMaggio. Toni was supported by Vice-President Jim Albert, Treasurer Melissa Urcan and Secretary Rainier Simoneaux. In our inaugural year we participated in the Section 106 Review of two structures integral to the Civic Center complex, the State Office Building and State Supreme Court. Ultimately both were demolished without plans for redevelopment. In March we successfully nominated four mid-century modern schools to the Louisiana Landmark Society's New Orleans Nine Most Endangered List. In June Design Within Reach hosted our first social event. John Klingman presented a slideshow of modernist buildings in the area, some at risk, others already and since demolished. In October we organized Modernism and Desire: A Streetcar Tour of Endangered Buildings in conjunction with AIA New Orleans. At the end of the year many of our members commented on the 106 Review of the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish which threatens to obliterate almost all modernist schools from the New Orleans landscape.

2009. The Year of the Emergency Cocktail. Formal meetings were supplemented by sudden calls to arms at the Columns and Bridge Lounge. We successfully fought for Hoffman Elementary in the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee reviews only to have the decision reversed by City Council. We were inundated with FEMA 106 meetings related to Wheatley and Lafon Elementary Schools. We participated in public meetings and continue to monitor the process of the 106 review. The year ended on a high note with the announcement that Charles Colbert's Phillis Wheatley Elementary School was named to the World Monuments Fund 2010 Watch. We need to remain vigilant as the building remains at risk. The Recovery School District still fails to secure the building allowing vandalism to increase.

2010. Not only did the Saints win the Super Bowl, but the Superdome's design was recognized as an acoustical weapon for the 12th Man at home. Landmark it now! Speaking of landmarks, the HDLC recently designated several modern buildings on Canal Street. These include the IBM/Red Cross Building(2460), Grace Episcopal Church (3700), Automotive Life Insurance Building (4140), Singer Sewing Company (4176) and Hope Mausoleum (4841).

One of our immediate goals is to increase our presence online and on the streets. A blog, facebook and twitter are being established as a preliminary web presence. Members of Docomomo will be invited and encouraged to contribute. We also intend to focus on ways to educate the community about modernist buildings in all New Orleans neighborhoods. Currently we are working on submissions to the New Orleans Nine Most Endangered List for 2010 (due March 22, forms here). Next meeting is scheduled TUESDAY March 9 at 6 pm, Tulane School of Architecture, room 305. Hope to see you there!

Francine Stock

president

docomomo _nola

Streamline Service Station (threatened)

2010-02-26T12:11:00.006-06:00

Streamline Moderne Service Station, 1429 S. Jefferson Davis, c. 1940s, photo by Francine Stock

This curvilinear concrete and glass block service station on Jefferson Davis Parkway is threatened with demolition. The building is situated directly across Earhart from the Blue Plate Building (August Perez, Jr., 1941, National Register of Historic Places). In Modernism in Louisiana: A Decade of Progress 1930-1940 Karen Kingsley describes a similar station, which has since been demolished. "The smooth lines and essentially the curved forms of modernism were suggestive of speed and motion. These forms were considered particularly suitable for buildings connected with travel. This gas station of the 1940s echoes the curvaceous forms of automobiles of the era."

A city-initiated request for a demolition permit will be reviewed by the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee on Monday March 1, 2010 at 2pm in City Council Chambers, City Hall. The Preservation Resource Center has photos of all buildings on Monday's NCDC agenda.

Hoffman Elementary R.I.P.

2010-02-23T15:21:00.016-06:00

Sol Rosenthal and Charles Colbert, architects. Designed 1948. Built 1954. Demolished 2010. Photo by Francine Stock.
Hoffman Elementary was the first of four public schools designed by Charles Colbert and built in New Orleans. McDonogh No. 36 is being revitalized by John C. Williams Architects as the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood and Family Learning Center. Though the elevated Wheatley Elementary School was named to the 2010 World Monuments Fund Watch List, it remains at risk. Lawless High School was demolished in 2007.

The Architect and the 12th Man

2010-01-23T17:26:00.012-06:00

"When you see how our Dome had stood the test of time, for 35 years and counting, give all the credit to [Nathaniel] "Buster" Curtis, the architect in charge," [Dave] Dixon said. "Buster was a genius. It remains basically the building he designed. Buster's responsible for the 12th man."

The Times-Picayune has featured several articles recently on the significance of the fans' vocal contributions to the team. For months they have been charting the decibel levels at certain key moments in play. On Friday, the front page of the paper is dedicated to tips on how to ramp up the volume from an opera singer. Saturday's feature section includes two articles which discuss the relationship between the design of the Superdome and its potential as an acoustic weapon.

Father of the Superdome is hoping his baby is the New Orleans Saints' 12th man
By Peter Finney, Times-Picayune, January 23, 2010

Louisiana Superdome can be a prime weapon for the New Orleans Saints in NFC championship game by Jeff Duncan, The Times-Picayune, January 23, 2010

Groovy New Year

2010-01-06T12:31:00.003-06:00

originally seen on moderndesigninterior

All I want for Christmas is the Saints in the Super Bowl!

2009-12-18T08:43:00.008-06:00

Superdome under construction, Curtis and Davis, architects, courtesy the Tulane School of Architecture New Orleans Virtual Archive. http://NOVA.tulane.edu

And all I want for my birthday is to go see the Saints in the Dome, though I admit tickets are a bit rich. I may have to play the lottery for that one. In the meantime, check out Kermit's Christmas list courtesy Basin Street Records and WWL.

Old News :: Good News

2009-11-28T06:43:00.007-06:00

Last month members of the board of Docomomo Louisiana presented a slideshow to the City Council Special Housing Committee at the request of Council Member Stacy Head. We were joined by Eliot Perkins, Executive Director of the Historic District Landmarks Commission. Head had requested this meeting to learn more about our mission and challenges. Ms. Head noted that seeing images of the buildings in better days helped her recognize their significance. She recommended we take our slide show on the road and present to neighborhood groups.

Update on Whitney Bank :: The City Council voted to uphold the HDLC designation as a historic landmark.

Update on Wheatley School :: The World Monuments Fund Watch listing has brought significant attention. Its possible we may have found the right fit for adaptive reuse. John Klingman was interviewed by Dave Egbert at Living Green Radio about sustainable reuse of Wheatley and other modernist structures. Listen here.

AIA Louisiana honors Albert Ledner with the Medal of Honor.

Regional Modernism :: The New Orleans Archives

Arthur Q. Davis, FAIA (1920-2011)

Sunkel-Nagin Residence on the Market

Henry Miller liked New Orleanians' lust for life

New Orleans' Bohemian Outsider “Gypsy Lou” – 1955, co-founder of Loujon Press, which published Miller's Order and chaos chez Hans Reichel in 1966.

Moderns on the Market

Romanticism + Regionalism

National Bank of Commerce (Tulane branch) 1958

Broken Promises and Green Space

Wheatley Elementary School was a perfectly fine building: Letter to the editor

A Plea For Modernism

New Orleans Regional Modernism is available on the App Store!

National Trust :: Modernist Masterpiece at Grave Risk in New Orleans

A numeric overview :: recent losses from the recent past

HANDS AROUND PHILLIS WHEATLEY

SAVE WHEATLEY SCHOOL! sign and share this petition

SAVE PHILLIS WHEATLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN NEW ORLEANS! SAY "NO!" TO DEMOLITION(AUGUST 2011)

Raymond Boudreaux Residence (1966)

Kirschman Residence (1962)

International Trade Mart [First] 1947

F. Edward Hebert Federal Building (1939)

Plan of Lake Vista (1936)

First National Life Insurance Co. (1960)

Diaz-Simon Pediatric Clinic (1958)

The Medical Plaza, Prytania entrance

New Orleans Public Library (1958)

House for Tomorrow (1936)

Feibleman’s Department Store / Wyndham Garden

Chotin Residence (1957)

Dr. Ben Freedman Residence (1957)

Ricciuti Residence (1957)

John Hancock Building (1960-62)

Charity Hospital (1939)

Pontchartrain Expressway at St. Charles Avenue

HDLC to review request to demolish school listed on World Mounment Fund Watch 2010

Stein's (1947)

YMCA (1960)

Robert E. Smith branch, New Orleans Public Library (1956)

St. Mary's Dominican / Loyola Annex (1968)

The Glass Menagerie :: exhibition opening

Cabana Club Apartments (1959)

Dr. Lyman K. Richardson Residence (1955, razed)

Mahorner Clinic (1951)

Physicans' Office Building (1950, razed)

Union Savings and Loan (1958)

National American Bank Building (1929)

One Shell Square (1972)

Burglass Furniture Store (1945-47, razed 2008)

Sarpy Residence (1963)

Work Hard :: Play Harder > It's Carnival Time!

FRANCINE STOCK :: Material Language

National American Bank (Lee Circle branch) 1952-54, razed 2007

K&B Pharmacy (1955)

Gallery Apartments (1962)

William G. Zetzmann House

DESIGNING PAN-AMERICA

Another msytery modern :: help please!

Gus Mayer Store (1960) RAZED

Saratoga Building (1957)

Abe Wiener Apartments (1950)

'Garden Apartments' (1939)

National Bank of Commerce Building (1957)

A & G Cafeteria (1968)

America Fore Insurance Group Building (1957)

Chapel of the Holy Spirit

Lecture on the French Quarter in the early 20th century

Party like it's 1952

Character study in Kodachrome

Is there a future for the recent past in New Orleans?

structure :: spirit :: sustainability

And then there will be one.

4 :: 3 :: 2 :: 1 :: Carver School Faces Imminent Demolition

Modern on the Market :: Lakewood South

TSA Geodesic Dome project 01 1954

A Necessary Ruin

The Sazerac Bar + Edward B. Silverstein

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School :: fading fast

abstract vernacular :: modernism in the humid south

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome

National Trust :: Modernism in New Orleans