Sarpy Residence (1963)

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]

Gallery Apartments (1962)

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]

Victor Bruno, architect :: an introduction

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"

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