Moderns on the Market

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

Plan of Lake Vista (1936)

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]

"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