“We wanted to respect the historic nature of the building and restore the historic elements, while also bringing in contemporary elements to create a juxtaposition of new and old,” Mark Wyant said. “We want to retain the sense of history here.”

When the boutique hotel opens, it will feature 166 rooms with custom-made furniture, two bars (the Burgundy Bar, which has lush velvet décor and will feature live jazz, and a rooftop bar to open spring 2012), a comfortable lobby with oversized chairs, a pool table and giant prints of historic photos pasted throughout the space, and Sweet Olive, a restaurant created by Chef Michael Stoltzfus of Coquette fame.

The restoration is one of the most exciting examples of adaptive reuse to debut this year. More to come in the March issue of Preservation in Print magazine. For now, peruse photos from yesterday’s tour HERE.

Photo by Sara Essex Bradley

In “The Ever Evolving Warehouse District” story featured in the November 2011 issue of Preservation In Print, we interviewed Crescent City Farmer’s Market and marketumbrella.org founder Richard McCarthy. McCarthy began a Saturday market in New Orleans’ Warehouse District — in the parking lot of local coffee and foods magnate Reily Foods, to be exact — in 1995 with the hopes of simultaneously opening three other markets across the city. It took some time, but he and a small staff met that goal: In addition to the Saturday market downtown, markets were held throughout the week Uptown, in Mid-City and in the French Market in the Quarter. While the French Market branch disappeared after Hurricane Katrina, the other markets continue to thrive. “On Tuesday mornings, there are so many white (chef) jackets at our market, you’d think it was a lunatic asylum,” McCarthy joked.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Historical research by John Hilbert and Shar Mansukhani and originally published in Preservation in Print.

Architect Emile Weil reputedly loved this 22-room Italianate / Beaux Arts Renaissance Revival house above all the other St. Charles Avenue and Audubon Place residences he designed. It took four years to complete the two-and-a-half-story palace — with its stone façade, balustrade and paired Ionic columns, grand interior foyer, replicated Versailles staircase and long ballroom — but by 1916 businessman Emmanuel V. Benjamin was ensconced in his dream home. Legend has it that his son, who grew up in the mansion, was such an eccentric that a group of men started “The Benjamin Club” just to tell and retell their favorite stories about him.

Paul Maloney Jr., son of Congressman Paul Maloney, bought the house in 1943, and 12 years later sold it to J. Edgar Monroe, a self-made millionaire and philanthropist. Monroe had a taste for opulent homes — his other house being a 100,000-square-foot cottage in Newport, RI. He died without heirs and his foundation sold the mansion to Michael Christovich, who renovated the interior under the direction of architect Peter Trapolin and decorating doyenne Nina Sloss. Davis Jahncke of Jahncke + Burns Architects designed the pool and poolhouse. Christovich donated a preservation easement to the PRC, which means any changes or alterations to the exterior must be approved by the PRC to ensure the protection of the historic integrity.

Tracy and Susan Krohn bought the property in January 2005, and soon Mrs. Krohn and interior designer/hair dresser Burke Saucier were off to Europe. They shopped Paris for chandeliers and antiques, bought French and Italian silk to create drapes hand stitched to Burke’s specifications, and shipped home a hand-carved Italian door to grace the entrance. They applied extensive embellishments to the moldings and medallions (including one designed by Burke using 360 pieces of plaster.) They were still decorating when Hurricane Katrina bore down, and the Krohns and Burke hurriedly flew off to Las Vegas.

Relocating to Houston, Susan Krohn put the house on the market and in the interim rented it to author Michael Lewis. The enormity of the property was described by Lewis in an article he wrote for portfolio.com, Sept. 18, 2008. He and his wife had found the only way to locate each other in the house was by cellphone, so one afternoon she called him on his mobile.

“Where are you?” she asked. “I’m in the house taking care of the kids,” I said, a little indignantly. “Well, you can’t be watching them very closely,” she said, “because I’m in the house taking care of the kids.”

When Fred and Jennifer Heebe bought the mansion in 2009, it needed structural work and an interior that would better suit their family so they hired The Hopkins Company to lead the project. Architect Steve Quarles assisted with the endeavor. The Heebes worked closely with PRC easement director Leah Tubbs in repairing the façade. Gerrie Bremermann, known for her blend of fine antiques, simple lines and sophisticated paint palette created the interior design. Her eye for completing a space is evident in the Heebe’s gracious living room. They added a chandelier with a plaster medallion by Tommy Lachin, hung Louisiana art collected with the assistance of Jean Bragg, and laid beautiful rugs found in New York. They also replaced all light fixtures, hardware and curtains throughout, graced the large entrance hall with a piano from M.S. Rau Antiques, and modified a rear room of the house to create a bar and family room whose walls are lined with Louisiana cypress. Heebe home was a perfect and spacious place to host the 2010 Holiday Home Tour Patron Party.

Continue reading about Emile Weil on our blog.

A Weil-designed two-story triplex at 5428 St. Charles Ave. (pictured to the left) is proposed for demolition. NCDC will consider the proposal on September 6, 2011.

We at the Preservation Resource Center are deeply saddened to say goodbye to one of our close allies, Pam Dashiell. Pam passed away on November 30, 2009. She was a tireless activist for the Holy Cross and the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods, as well as a member of the Neighborhood Conservation Districts Committee. We have enjoyed working with Pam over the years.

“I knew Pam from the late 1980′s and was thrilled to get her involved with PRC. Pam is one of the reasons we developed our partnership with Holy Cross, in 2003. We will miss her tremendously, as will the neighborhood and the city as a whole.”
– Patty Gay, Executive Director of the Preservation Resource Center.

Pam left some very big shoes to fill in our community.

Please see the next issue of Preservation in Print for a full write up on Pam’s contributions.

By Robert D. Leighninger, Jr.

President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package is the most comprehensive public works program since the New Deal of the 1930s. The bill includes more than just highways and bridges, which were the focus of a more recent 1950s public investment blockbuster that built the Interstate Highway system. The bill includes cyber-technology efforts like broadband Internet access and better management of medical information, energy efficiency and conservation projects, aid to states for healthcare and education, better unemployment benefits and more tax cuts. The bill is intended to create an immediate boost to the economy and long-range dividends from shoring up crumbling infrastructure. In both regards one can look at the New Deal for inspiration, guidance and caution.

Public memory of the New Deal is quite limited, even among experts. Few realize how many and varied the New Deal’s Depression-fighting interventions were. There were at least 12 separate building initiatives, with different organizational structures, leadership and goals. All deserve closer inspection because all had notable successes and equally important limitations. Critics point out correctly that the New Deal was an amazing hodge-podge of often contradictory initiatives and did not end the Depression; a World War was required for that. They note that a roaring recession in 1937 almost wiped out the gains made in the first four years. But they don’t add that the recession was caused by FDR’s misguided attempt to balance the budget by cutting the public works programs. He soon realized the mistake, and by the time the war came along, the numbers were moving back in the right directions.

Click here for more great photos of WPA projects around New Orleans!

But whether the New Deal ended the Depression or not is an irrelevant debate. The important thing is that the public works programs did have an immediate effect on the economy and did leave behind a lasting legacy of physical and cultural infrastructure, which we have been using for more than 70 years. In Louisiana, 11 parish courthouses, whole university campuses, scores of school buildings, a remodeled French Market, the Huey P. Long Bridge, water and sewer systems that prevented public health crises in many towns and cities, City Park in New Orleans, and Charity Hospital are a few examples of New Deal contributions to the state landscape.

Most of the New Deal’s biggest and most enduring projects were provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). Such things took time, planning and skilled labor. Its stimulation of the economy through reviving the production of building materials such as cement and steel was not apparent for several years, as current critics point out. But there were also programs with immediate results. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) put four million people to work in a few weeks. It directed labor-intensive projects such as building sidewalks, as well as white-collar work including staffing libraries and clinics. It even employed artists. We worry now if there are enough “shovel ready” projects in the current package. In the ’30s, the CWA found, despite reassurance by tool manufacturers, that there were simply not enough shovels for all the workers and projects. Warehouses of World War I army surplus were opened to meet the need. The economic stimulus was immediate and large enough to be noted by the Wall Street Journal, and its absence was apparent soon after the CWA was terminated four and a half months later.

The effects of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) were also immediate. It took idle young men off the streets and rails; gave them nourishment, skills, and education; put them to work planting trees, stopping soil erosion, and fighting forest fires; and sent $25 a month home to their struggling families. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), the program most likely to be remembered and therefore widely assumed to have done all the work, did not arrive until 1935. It continued CWA’s specialization on small to medium, labor-intensive projects, but also built things of lasting value like Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park.

These programs were financed cooperatively by federal, state and local contributions. On WPA projects, most of the labor was paid for by the federal government, but local governments often contributed building materials. The PWA projects relied on a combination of federal grants and local borrowing. Initially the split was 30/70 and after 1935 45/55. In the beginning, PWA would loan the local portion if they could not finance it themselves. By 1935, the local bond market had recovered sufficiently that PWA loans were no longer necessary. This fact alone is evidence of the contribution of public works to the financial system. Bond issues usually required a local election, and most passed overwhelmingly. The Alexandria Town Talk reported September 15, 1937, that the bond issue to fund the new Rapides Parish Courthouse passed in a “sweeping victory,” 735 to 499. People were willing to tax themselves in the midst of a depression, an amazing thought to many contemporary minds. But their investment in the future has paid off many times over.

What could be done now in Louisiana? Two of the three PWA schools in New Orleans — Frederick Douglass, A.P. Tureaud, and John Shaw — are open but all could use repair (Shaw remains closed). The levees still need work. According to the structural engineering report by RMJM Hillier, Charity could be returned to service as a first-rate hospital supplying desperately needed facilities. There is certainly no lack of useful work to be done.

There are also many ways to approach our problems. The New Deal was not a monolithic program. Differently structured agencies served different needs. There are lots of lessons, good and bad, to be learned from it. The four most important lessons, I think, are these: First, public jobs can provide economic stimulus if they go to the people who will spend their salaries immediately. Increased consumption will inspire investment. During the New Deal, millions were desperate for basic food and clothing; money returned to the economy immediately with attendant multipliers once people were employed and had money to spend. Even car sales went up after the CWA had been in operation a few months.

Second, federal oversight, which was exercised relentlessly by the PWA and to a lesser extent by the WPA, will be necessary to reestablish public trust in an age accustomed to pork-barrel excesses.

Third, we must make sure the commitment is enough. Roosevelt pulled the plug on the CWA, even though it was enormously effective, because he was frightened of how much it was costing. He started the recession of 1937 by again cutting public works programs. Had he hung on in 1934 we might not be debating whether WWII was required to end the Depression.

Fourth, we can be assured that if the money goes to public works, we will have something to show for the expenditure, something that will pay dividends for decades.