New Orleans Public Library (1958)

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]

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

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)

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)

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]

William G. Zetzmann House

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]

Gus Mayer Store (1960) RAZED

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

America Fore Insurance Group Building (1957)

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

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

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

The Sazerac Bar + Edward B. Silverstein

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.

New Orleans :: most Progressive Architecture awards :: 1955

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

A great day on Canal Street

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

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]

The Architect and the 12th Man

"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

Thomy Lafon Elementary School

Thomy Lafon Elementary School, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Looking a bit more closely at the plan of the Thomy Lafon School today. Preparing a lecture on case studies and will discuss Lafon in relation to Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye.

The form of the school has been obscured / marred by the unsympathetic addition of those horrible corrugated red hoods. But the plan better illustrates how this school functioned without corridors. The kindergarten wing was accessible by a playful ramp to the upper story. Beyond the kindergarten, classrooms were paired to share a staircase and toilet facilities. Architect Nathaniel C. Curtis described the plan as "the next logical step after the finger plan."* His partner architect Arthur Q. Davis describes the form as "a long, thin classroom wing, gracefully bent to avoid monotony."**

Here the pilotis serve many functions. The elevation of the classroom wing amplifies available play space which also offers shelter from rain and needed shade.This would also keep the classrooms cooler as there is a greater breeze at higher elevation. This is of course an old French Colonial tradition. Finally, the pilotis saved the classrooms from flooding post-Katrina. The Survivors Council fought to re-open the school in 2007, but to no avail. It has remained shuttered. The RSD has no plans for the reuse of the building. However, it could be adapted to serve the Harmony Oaks community as an early childhood center.


* In 1952 the first modern school was built in New Orleans, designed by Curtis and Davis. It was originally known as McDonogh 39 (later renamed Avery Alexander School) and followed a finger school plan with a series courtyards between the wings. School Facilities Plan called for its demolition. It was on the Louisiana Landmark's New Orleans Nine Most Endangered list in 2009, along with Lafon, Wheatley and Carver. Quote is from Talk About Architecture, Heard, Lemann and Klingman, 1993

** It Happened by Design, Arthur Q. Davis, 2009

Save Wheatley School!

Charles Colbert's master work is threatened with imminent demolition at the hands of the Recovery School Board. Docomomo Louisiana considers Phillis Wheatley Elementary School one of the ten most important modernist buildings in the state. They have presented the RSD with a vision of how this important historic building can be renewed and adapted as part of a state-of the art school for Tremé. Now it's your turn.

Please submit comments in support of the preservation of the Wheatley School (Charles Colbert, 1955) and Lafon Elementary School (Curtis and Davis, 1954) to the FEMA 106 site.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/culturalassets/fema106/

Comments are due by September 30, 2009.

Sacra Conversazione

DECONSTRUCTION: AN IMPRESSION OF VANISHING TREASURES
new paintings by Nell C. Tilton
June 6-30, 2009

Carol Robinson Gallery, 840 Napoleon Avenue (at Magazine Street)

Statement by the Artist

The focus of this exhibit is a collection of abstract paintings that recall elements of specifically two demolished buildings - one destroyed before Hurricane Katrina, the Rivergate Convention Center, and one demolished after and because of Katrina, St. Frances Cabrini Church in Gentilly.

My emphasis in these paintings is to capture the essence of the buildings and to represent the feeling of turmoil, destruction and a sense of loss for those creations by using form, color, value, and textural properties of the paint.

These structures were treasures because they were the result of a vision, a collaboration of many talented artists and craftsmen expressing their dream and creativity, special skills, abilities and brilliance through their art. They were places for a community to gather, exchange ideas, worship, practice commerce, or come together and celebrate. They were treasures because of the innovative designs and engineering feats that were revolutionary at the time of their construction in the 1960's.

My father, Nathaniel C. "Buster" Curtis, Jr. was an architect, artist, and historian. He loved people, his family, his heritage and his work. He was the Chief Project Architect and Director as well as the designer of the Rivergate Convention Center and held the same title for the Louisiana Superdome. He was a gentle, humble man who was very talented and proud of his accomplishments. He died in 1997, almost two years to the day after the demolition of the Rivergate began. This exhibit is dedicated to his memory and his love of architecture.

Arthur Q. Davis: Legacy of a Modern Architect

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

press release: Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Arthur Q. Davis: Legacy of a Modern Architect
Exhibition highlighting local architect’s career and debut of his new biography

In 1947, a time in which few New Orleans-based architects were advancing modern architecture, Arthur Q. Davis and his partner, Nathanial C. Curtis, established their practice in the city. The Curtis and Davis firm was best known for designing the Louisiana Superdome and modernist landmarks in New Orleans, including the New Orleans Rivergate Exhibition Center; the New Orleans Public Library; Royal Orleans Hotel; St. Frances Cabrini Church; the Caribe Building; the Automotive Life Building; private residences (including Davis’ own); Thomy Lafon Elementary School; and the George Washington Carver Elementary, Junior and Senior High schools. In later decades, under his Arthur Q. Davis, FAIA, and Partners firm, he designed the New Orleans Arena, a new town project in Indonesia and numerous other projects.

On April 23, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art will open the exhibition “Arthur Q. Davis: Legacy of a Modern Architect,” an overview of Davis’ long and illustrious career. The exhibition will showcase images, drawings and related archival materials to create a cohesive look at Davis’ life and work. The exhibition will be on view until July 19, 2009.

“This exhibition and the related publication seek to increase the public’s awareness of his legacy, and that of his architectural partners, while also focusing attention on the significance of many of these now endangered modernist landmarks,” says Ogden Museum of Southern Art Director J. Richard Gruber.

Arthur Q. Davis at Exhibition Opening and Booksigning on Thurs. April 23

Davis will be at the Ogden on Thursday, April 23, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (during Ogden After Hours) to open the exhibition and sign copies of his recently released book “It Happened by Design: The Life and Work of Arthur Q. Davis” (University Press of Mississippi/Ogden Museum of Southern Art). Davis’ co-author, Ogden director J. Richard Gruber, will also be at the event. (Ogden After Hours is the Ponderosa Stomp Preview featuring Bobby Rush.)

About Arthur Q. Davis, FAIA
Arthur Q. Davis was born in 1920 in New Orleans. After graduating from Isidore Newman School, he entered Tulane University’s School of Architecture at age 17. Davis met his wife, Mary Henriette Wineman Davis, while he attended Tulane and she—a native of Detroit, Michigan—attended Newcomb College. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then advanced his architectural studies at Harvard University under noted masters Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer before working with Eero Saarinen. As a partner in the firms including Curtis and Davis, and more recently Arthur Q. Davis, FAIA, and Partners, Davis worked on a number of notable projects in United States and abroad, including Vietnam, Aruba, Scotland, Indonesia, and Berlin, Germany. Today, at age 89, Davis is still active in the community.

Last day to comment on FEMA 106 review of public schools

Today is the last day to submit a public comment to FEMA on the schools effected by the master plan. http://www.crt.state.la.us/culturalassets/FEMA106/
Of the thirty schools built in the 1950s, only Mahalia Jackson Elementary is slated for renovation. All other modernist schools are slated for demolition.

The OPSB and BESE approval of the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish (SFMPOP) may effectively erase mid-century modern school facilities from the cultural and architectural fabric of New Orleans. In the spring of 2008, DOCOMOMO Louisiana successfully nominated four of these schools to the Louisiana Landmarks Society Most Endangered List.

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, 1955
2300 Dumaine Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
Charles R. Colbert, architect
Progressive Architecture citation

Thomy Lafon Elementary School, 1954
2601 Seventh Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
Curtis and Davis, architects
AIA Honor Award

George Washington Carver Junior - Senior High School, 1958
3059 Higgins Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana
Curtis and Davis, architects
Progressive Architecture First Design Award

McDonogh No. 39 / Avery Alexander Elementary School, 1952
5800 St. Roch Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana
Goldstein, Parham and Labouisse; Freret and Wolf; Curtis and Davis, architects
First modern public school in New Orleans

In A Guide to the Architecture of New Orleans 1699-1959, Samuel Wilson, Jr. cites twenty-five of the thirty public schools which were built in the 1950s. Of these, ten have been demolished or are slated for demolition. Of the remaining fifteen mid-century modern schools, fourteen were assessed as "complete replacement." While many of these buildings were clearly damaged by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent inundation, some are merely victims of neglect. The Recovery School District is indeed in the process of recovering. However, that is not an excuse for the wholesale demolition of mid-century modern public school architecture from the city of New Orleans. These schools were designed with respect to the city's environment and the structures are ripe for sustainable rehabilitation and reuse.

All of the schools suffered from deferred maintenance and general neglect under the governance of the Orleans Parish School Board. The primary structures at the Phillis Wheatley and Thomy Lafon Elementary Schools are elevated, but ground floor adjunct spaces were inundated. McDonogh No. 39 /Avery Alexander and George Washington Carver Schools were heavily inundated. The school facilities were cleared of materials and have been boarded up. These buildings have all been vacant since the storm.
In 1952, Charles R. Colbert was named the architect in charge of the new Office of Planning and Construction. He initiated a study of physical plant and invited local firms to submit designs for review in architectural competitions for the new schools. Architecture firms involved in this mid-century modern renaissance include: August Perez and Associates; Burk, LeBreton and Lamantia; Charles R. Colbert; Curtis and Davis; Favrot, Reed, Mathes and Bergman; Freret and Wolf; Goldstein, Parham and Labouisse; and Ricciuti Associates. Several mid-century school facilities were recognized by national architecture journals and organizations for their design merit. The Thomy Lafon School (1954, Curtis & Davis) received the AIA Honor Award. Progressive Architecture recognized the Phillis Wheatley School (1955, Charles R. Colbert). In 1957 Curtis & Davis earned Progressive Architecture's highest honor, the First Design Award, in for the innovative George Washington Carver Junior and Senior High Schools. New Orleans mid-century modern architects were not just making headlines and history. They were creating models of a regional modernism, inventive designs which are of a place, by a place and for a place.

While McDonogh no. 39 / Avery Alexander Elementary School in Gentilly did not receive any awards, it was nonetheless recognized as a model facility and was the first modern school built in New Orleans. McDonogh No. 39 is a "finger school," with four lengths of classrooms connected at one end to a broad wing of administrative offices. 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. The architects of record were Goldstein, Parham and Labouisse, in association with Freret & Wolf, and Curtis & Davis.

The Phillis Wheatley Elementary School is by far one of the most compelling monuments of the era. It is the culmination of a series of design innovations produced by Charles R. Colbert, one of the primary instigators of change in the public school facilities. Colbert describes how the formal structure of the Phillis Wheatley School was informed by the desire to create additional play space for the children on a relatively compact urban site.

"The city building code was interpreted to allow Wheatley to be a one-floor structure. Because of this decision, the design could combine the advantages of an exposed steel structure, without fireproofing, while concentrating its reduced weight on pile supports. The entire classroom structure was raised above grade to allow the enlargement of a diminutive play area and to create a play yard. Conventional post-and-beam construction would have created a field of hazardous columns throughout the play area while the use of the full effective depth of the cantilevered steel trusses eliminated most of these obstructions. The entire classroom structure was housed within twelve shop fabricated trusses and the twenty-two classrooms were located within this simple floor-to-ceiling structural envelope. Secondary steel joists spanned from truss to truss and supported the horizontal roof membrane, while floors consisted of six inch deep double tongue and groove wood decking that spanned between trusses. The truss, better recognized in bridges, thus became more than the support for a roof system. This old and widely used structural assembly allowed efficient shop fabrication, simple assembly, and a reduced job site construction period. The raison d'etre, to free the play yard, developed into something more.

The result was stunning. Airy, light-filled classrooms, elevated from the street, gave the effect of a modern tree-house, an appropriate and poetic setting for a child's classroom. The elevation of the Phillis Wheatley School protected the classrooms from the post-Katrina inundation of the city. Sadly the building is a victim of decades of neglect. The facility does require some intervention. The steel trusses could certainly benefit from a coat of paint. Also, the clear glass was replaced long ago with cheaper opaque plexi-glass panels. Improvements in glass and automated HVAC make it possible to renovate Wheatley to perform better than originally.

Both Phillis Wheatley and Thomy Lafon Elementary Schools were built on raised piers that saved them from the floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina. The open space underneath the elevated structure helps cool the building in our climate. This structural conceit is borrowed from the French Colonial tradition. Breezes naturally cool an elevated structure. In the case of Wheatley and Lafon, the elevated structures also created a wealth of covered play space, protected from the elements. Both schools were built with a sensitivity to local environmental conditions. The exterior walls were glass in Wheatley, mostly glass in Lafon. This gave the children new perspectives, as well as an abundance of natural light and ventilation. It is tragic that so many of the later generation of school buildings were designed as nearly windowless detention cells.
Colbert encouraged his fellow architects to consider the "emotional and spiritual needs of children" in their design of school buildings.

The George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School was praised as a model school for the nation. Integrating a junior and senior high school on the same campus as an elementary school allowed the schools to share some common facilities.

The striking design of the auditorium with its concrete vault and hinged bridge-like buttresses helped establish Curtis and Davis as architects on the international stage. Progressive Architecture's recognition of this school with its highest design award in 1958 is a tribute to the architectural quality of Carver High School as well as the design reforms set in place by Charles Colbert.
Buildings dating from the modernist era are currently entering a period of extreme vulnerability. Their architectural and mechanical systems are reaching the end of their life cycle and are in need of re-investment. The clean and clear modernist vision is likewise marred by neglect and unsympathetic alterations during the past decades. While 19th century buildings sometimes become more romantic as they decay, the results of deferred maintenance on mid-century modern buildings are unflattering at best. In addition, the modernist style has yet to reach an era of broad understanding and appreciation by the general public. In New Orleans, the economic argument for demolition and new construction inevitably prevails. We need to preserve the most significant buildings of the twentieth century for our city's future.

Continued education and advocacy for these structures will raise awareness of their significance, quality and importance to the architectural and social history of New Orleans. Increased acceptance of modern buildings as legitimate structures to be maintained, rehabilitated, preserved and restored will help eliminate the threat of demolition. Conservation and re-use of existing buildings is also a widely acknowledged strategy for the increased overall sustainability of a city's building stock.

Modern and contemporary architecture has been seen by some as having had a negative impact. In particular, historic cities that lost significant urban fabric through urban renewal have been averse to the buildings that came in its place. While there has been opposition to their retention, attitudes have been changing. There is a growing appreciation for their role in the urban fabric as a record of diverse values and cultural movements.

New Orleans' current population is approximately half of its 1960 population, so there is less need for so many facilities. It appears that the plan is to clear the lots while FEMA funds are available for demolition and rebuild as necessary. However, in that process, struggling neighborhoods are deprived of a potential community center, artists' studio complex or musicians' practice space. These buildings are ripe for adaptive re-use and they belong to the people of New Orleans. Their structures are solidly engineered, designed in sympathy with our climate, and have become part of our cultural and historic fabric.

The renovation of a modernist school that was built in a moment of sheer optimism can serve as a symbol for the city's rebirth. We can recover the future from the past.

Francine Stock
Visual Resource Curator, Tulane University, School of Architecture, New Orleans

Adapt old schools to new uses

Thomy Lafon Elementary School (THREATENED), 2601 Seventh Street, Curtis and Davis, architects, AIA Honor Award, 1954. Photo: Frank Lotz Miller. Copyright: Tulane Libraries, Special Collections, Southeastern Architectural Archive.

Today the Thomy Lafon School sits abandoned, high and dry, in the center of what was once the Magnolia / CJ Peete Housing Development. The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish does not provide for its renovation and does not indicate future plans for any school facility on that site. The building itself could be adapted to other uses: a community resource center, an arts and cultural center, or a small business incubator. New Orleans has a history of this type of adaptive reuse of old school sites. The McDonogh No. 10 School in central city has been redeveloped into Lindy's Place, a residence for women in transition. If school facilities are no longer needed by the school district, they can still assist in the recovery and rebirth of their neighborhoods in other ways. Today's Times-Picayune features a letter to the editor from Wayne Troyer, Architect.

Re: "Building boom," Page 1, Aug. 17.

As we progress with the rebuilding of our public schools, we must consider not only the immediate needs of the Recovery School District and Orleans Parish School Board but the long-term goals of neighborhoods affected by the master plan.

With the extent of demolition and replacement proposed, it is imperative that as a community, we step back and evaluate the long-term loss of the culture, diversity and history that these structures represent before they are torn down and hauled to the landfill.

Complete replacement in lieu of renovations and adaptive reuse is simply reckless and immoral.

Land-banking (demolition of existing buildings, seeding the land, fencing it off and then waiting for development sometime in the future) is not a strategy for strengthening neighborhoods.

Renovation, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of school buildings can become symbolic of the city's ability to recover and renew itself.

Demolition and replacement show that we have lost respect for our history.

The clean slate approach, at this time of scarcity and escalating cost of building materials, is simply wrong.

Wayne Troyer recently worked with Vincent James Associates Architects on the renovation of Tulane's University Center, also by Curtis Davis, into the new Lavin-Bernick Center.

RSD analysis map :: layer one :: the land banked

RSD analysis map :: layer one, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

Sixty-six properties. Some are open. Some are closed. Some are already demolished. None are projected to be viable school facilities in the future, according to the most recent and nearly final School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish.

The plan was announced in the Times-Picayune Sunday edition. The story included a map of the new construction or renovation of twenty-eight schools in the first phase (approximately five years). A facing layout listed the other ninety-seven facilities that will not be part of the first phase of this building boom. Of these, thirty-one are slated for future renovation, though no funds are secured for those schools. Unless the other sixty-six are "land banked."

Land banking can mean many things, most usually selling the building or demolishing the building and selling the land. Some of the sixty-six land banked properties are actually slated for new construction in "future phases", also unfunded. Architects of these potentially land-banked schools include E. A. Christy, Charles Colbert, Curtis and Davis, Moise Goldstein, and Henry Howard. One of Christy's facilities, the Lockett School has already been demolished, though there are no plans for a New School until "future phases" of the plan, i.e. sometime in the next thirty years.

The plan will be presented to the Orleans Parish School Board Tuesday 8.19.08 at 5 p.m. at McDonogh #35 High School, 1331 Kerlerec Street.

Source of data: Times-Picayune 8.17.08 print edition, page A-11.
Google Map by Francine Stock

UPDATE 8.22.08 This map has been posted to the Save Our Schools New Orleans site.