1965 NOLA Subway Proposal

In April 1965, New Orleans architect Italo William Ricciuti (1906-1987) raised eyebrows with a speech delivered to the American Association of University Women's Crescent City Branch, in which he outlined his solution to the city's increasing traffic problems. . . a subway system.

A skeptical Times-Picayune reporter asked whether the soft soil subgrade conditions and the potential for storm-related flooding would be prohibitive.  Ricciuti responded by  stressing the need for urban design and planning in New Orleans, and by citing other cities then building subway systems, including Rotterdam, Oslo, Milan and Montreal.  He conveyed that engineering assessments of the Crescent City's soil were favorable, and that it would be easier to build a subterranean transportation system here due to the lack of rocks. He viewed pumping systems as the means of obviating future flooding.

Read more:  "Subway Seen as Traffic Aid."  The Times-Picayune 22 April 1965.

Image above:  Italo William Ricciuti, architect. Ricciuti, Stoffle and Associates. Firm Brochure. Undated. Biographical Files, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! Hertzberg Finding Aid/UPhO #8

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Rudolf Hertzberg Louisiana Architecture Photographs. Levee engineer Rudolf Hertzberg (1906-1982) donated the prints and corresponding negatives to the Tulane School of Architecture during the Second World War. These were part of an open collection that served faculty and students. During the 1970s, those contact prints and negatives still extant were transferred to Tulane University Libraries. Hertzberg donated an additional set of prints and negatives in 1972 and Library staff unified the two donations to form a single collection that entered the SEAA when it was founded in 1980.

Read more here.

Anyone know the location?  Van Geffen's Bakery was located at 1325 St. Bernard Avenue, but we have been unable to locate the Susie-Q-Inn. This is one of many Unidentified Photographic Objects [UPhOs] in the SEAA.

UPDATE:  KUDOS to the SEAA's Kevin Williams for locating the structures, 1201-1203 St. Philip Street/1005-1007 Henriette Delille Street (formerly St. Claude).

Image above:  Rudolf Hertzberg, photographer. Susie-Q-Inn. 1201 St. Philip Street/1005-1007 St. Claude [Now Henriette Delille Street]. New Orleans. Circa 1938. Rudolf Hertzberg Louisiana Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Field Trip: FACADOMY

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C. for the Society of American Archivists annual meeting, I came across 2310 Connecticut Avenue Northwest, within the Sheridan-Kalorama Historic District.  The steel-braced facade is all that remains of a 1920's apartment building designed by Stern & Tomlinson. It will be reused as part of a new 130-unit apartment to house Chinese Embassy workers.

This approach to preservation is often referred to as "facadectomy" and the associated trend is called "facadomy." For those interested in preservation theory and the economics of preservation, the topic frequently inspires a passionate response. Many North American municipalities are reporting record numbers of facadectomies post-2008; these include Toronto, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.  The FB Amercan Facadomy Group regularly posts images of such projects and  Place Economics' Donovan Rypkema has addressed the trend in numerous interviews.

Image above:  K. Rylance. 2310 Connecticut Avenue NW. Washington, DC.  14 August 2014. 

NEW! Diboll & Owen Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Diboll and Owen Office Records. The collection provides a limited view of the firm’s architectural output, dating from 1906-1972.

The most comprehensive records are associated with the firm’s work on the Milne Municipal Boys’ Home, located in the Third Municipal District (1932-1935). These include project drawings and progress photographs, correspondence, field notes and contract documents.

Across the collection’s renderings, those associated with Jack J.H. Kessels’ work on public housing projects during the 1930s are the most complete. Other drawings mostly pertain to early projects singularly developed by Owen or in partnership with Diboll and/or Goldstein; one represents Collins C. Diboll, Jr.’s Teche Greyhound Bus Depot in collaboration with Jack J.H. Kessels and Henry Boettner.

Photographic documentation of the firm’s early buildings is significant, as the firm retained the services of the city’s leading professional photographers, John Norris Teunisson, Joseph Schnetzer, Charles L. Franck and Louis T. Fritch.


Image above: Joseph Schnetzer, photographer for Diboll and Owen, Ltd. & T.A. Pittman, Inc. Milne Municipal Boys’ Home. 1 March 1933. Progress photograph. Diboll & Owen Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! SS Labouisse Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Samuel Stanhope Labouisse Office Records.  Samuel Stanhope Labouisse (1879-1918) was a prominent New Orleans architect, the nephew of Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) and a founding member of the Louisiana chapter of the American Institute of Architects. A New Orleans native, Labouisse graduated from Tulane University (B.E. architecture, 1900) and then obtained a B.S. degree in architecture from Columbia University, where he studied with William Ware. Following his graduation, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the American Academy in Rome (1903-04).

Read more here.

Many thanks to Tulane School of Architecture architect-educator Milton Scheuermann, Jr. for donating Labouisse's Grand Tour sketches to the SEAA!

Image above: Samuel Stanhope Labouisse and Children.  Copy print from undated photograph, circa 1915. Biographical Files, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! Koch & Wilson Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Koch and Wilson Office Records. The expansive collection consists of architectural records and correspondence files associated with the partnership of Richard Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr., as well as the earlier partnership of Charles R. Armstrong and Richard Koch. Also included are independent projects undertaken by Richard Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr., as well as copies of architectural drawings by other architects whose buildings Koch and Wilson altered.

The Koch and Wilson practice became one of the most significant preservation firms of the twentieth century, undertaking the restoration of the French Market, the Pitot House, the Pontalba Apartments, Gallier House and the Ursuline Convent. Additionally, the architects produced a significant number of contemporary residences informed by French, British and American architectural traditions. Although primarily associated with Louisiana and Mississippi preservation, the firm’s output extended across the southeastern United States and was not exclusively devoted to historic renovations and adaptations. Koch and Wilson completed drawings for projects in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas; and the partners developed modernist designs, such as those for Metairie cemetery’s gates and fountain (1961-63). Their partnership continued until Koch’s death in 1971; since then, the firm has continued to operate under the name “Koch and Wilson, Architects.”

During the early 1970s, Samuel Wilson, Jr. prepared a series of National Register of Historic Places nomination forms for the U.S. General Services Administration. His research files included photographs, sketches and narratives associated with the histories of various Alabama and Mississippi federal buildings, including the James Knox Taylor (1857-1929) Selma Post Office (1908-09, shown above).  These documents are included in the Koch and Wilson Office Records.

Read more about the firm and see an inventory of its projects here.

Image above: Koch and Wilson, Architects. Selma, Alabama Federal Building and Court House; Old Post Office Building. Photograph by Samuel Wilson, Jr.  1974. Koch and Wilson Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Prohibition & Architecture

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Lafayette Realty Company Records, 1906-1923. For researchers interested in identifying Jackson Brewing Company corner saloons, this collection may prove beneficial. Records chronicle saloon maintenance matters and also provide information relevant to Jackson Brewing’s real estate divestments following enforcement of the Volstead Act. Representative of social concerns leading to prohibition, the collection includes a letter written by alcohol and drug-addiction physician Dr. F.F. Young, seeking a rental property to accommodate 16-25 bedrooms, associated with his request to the New Orleans commissioner of public safety to treat “people suffering from functional neurosis.”

Read more here.

Image above:  Receipt Statement. Jackson Brewing Company to Lafayette Realty Company, New Orleans. For materials, repairs to saloon located at Dumaine and North Derbigny Street, New Orleans, LA.  30 May 1920.  Lafayette Realty Company Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.