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New Orleans Architecture: The Esplanade Ridge
-The New Republic Here is the award-winning history of the entire length of one street from the Mississippi River to Bayou St. John in paperback format. New Orleans Architecture Volume V: The Esplanade Ridge, compiled by the Friends of the Cabildo, a leading preservation organization, focuses on the unified type of architecture along the 3.3-mile length of majestic Esplanade Avenue. The Esplanade represents a treasure-trove of nineteenth-century architecture, with every decade of the 1800s represented in this work. Included are French-colonial and Creole homes, American-style frame and brick townhouses, Louisiana plantation types, as well as Italianate Victorian, Second Empire, Edwardian, Mission, and City Beautiful styles. Almost two hundred houses on the Esplanade were constructed prior to 1900, and all but five of the avenue's blocks still contain historically important structures. More than 350 photographs, paintings, and sketches, many of them from archival sources, are reproduced, along with a large map of Esplanade Avenue. The New Orleans Architecture Series consists of Volume I: The Lower Garden District, Volume II: The American Sector, Volume III: The Cemeteries, Volume IV: The Creole Faubourgs, Volume V: The Esplanade Ridge, Volume VI: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road, Volume VII: Jefferson City, and Volume VIII: The University Section, all available from Pelican.
- GenresArchitecture
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 28, 2020
A good reference book, but I knocked off a star though as there are errors and I felt some parts, such as the parks along the avenue, were passed over.
May 28, 2008
This is a tremendous series. It is generated not only from the incredible history and architectural richness of New Orleans, but also an especially deep commitment to celebrating and preserving these treasures. This series has methodically chronicalled neighborhood after neighborhood and topic after topic.
I have read 4 or 5 of these volumes so far and they have ranged from well-executed to magnificent. This volume V on Esplande Ridge falls into the latter category.
It has a very narrow and easily defined focus: a single road. Esplande stretched from water to water -- Bayou St John to the river. About 31 blocks (under 3 miles) in all. Its history dates to the earliest days of the city, with development beginning by the 1720s.
The book is roughly the same size and format of the others in the series -- 190 pages, 9 x 12, packed with hundreds of photos. What sets it apart from the others (University section of Uptown; Lower Garden District; Cemeteries; etc.):
1. It covers almost EVERY structure in its jurisdiction (rather than just most noteworthy and possibly a few typical ones).
2. It offers frank, constructive recommendations for how to restore and improve current (as of 1977!) structures.
Its format is:
Dedication
Foreword
Intro
Map
Military history
US Mint
119 pp. of block by block photos and descriptions, from the 400-block at the river to the 3400-block at the bayou.
City Park (at the terminus of Esplande, after 3400 block)
Archival drawings
Photo index (which briefly describes each property with a thumb nail sized photo, referring the reader back to the place in that 119pp. body of the book). NOTE: the index is NOT by page number but by address and so if easy to use once you figure that out.
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Very nicely bound, on excellent glossy paper, and printed locally in Gretna by Pelican.
The black and white photos range from historic to 1970s. They are often as much as a full page, and are excellent.
Most interesting are the authors' frank comments about the present structures. They can be hysterical and a tad harsh, but most readers will agree. The flow of an entire block is often interrupted by a cheaply built and poorly designed 20th century monstrosity.
For example, 1341 Esplande (p. 159) is depicted in the index and described in the following way; "Perhaps the side galleries with iron supports and railings and brackets as well as the narrow vertical stripes of bricks alternating with the fenestration panels were an attempt by a planner to adapt modern brick, metal windows, and post-1950 architectural design to the Esplande vocabulary. If so, it failed." !!!
Or the introduction to the photo index (p. 151): "....Photographs illustrate structures that range from the fine to the terrible. Elegant nineteenth-century homes presently in bad condition are recommended for restoration, and ill-designed, unsuitable modern buildings are condemned. Original, attractive features of mutilated buildings are highlighted as are acceptable features of mediocre architecture. Similarly, unacceptable alterations spoiling the integrity of houses are decried. Recommendations for the entire street are presented, and attention given to the despoiling of all important intersections as well as most corner locations....."
The reader will pardon the sometimes elitist tone and condemning attitude because the insights are so rich and the recommendations often seem so wise.
One interesting exercise is to read the 1976 descriptions of these homes, with the recommendations for restoration and then to drive by and see what has happened to them since then.
Famous structures, BTW, include the US Mint, Cabrini High School, Beauregard's statue at City Park, St. Louis No. 3 Cemetery, and a number of major churches and mansions. The human stories of their construction is amazing: enormous and gorgeous mansions built by French, "Americaines," Free Men of Color, Jews, and others. And the more modest homes also have their stories as well, which often appear in this book. Quite a gumbo.
This volume is a must-have.
I have read 4 or 5 of these volumes so far and they have ranged from well-executed to magnificent. This volume V on Esplande Ridge falls into the latter category.
It has a very narrow and easily defined focus: a single road. Esplande stretched from water to water -- Bayou St John to the river. About 31 blocks (under 3 miles) in all. Its history dates to the earliest days of the city, with development beginning by the 1720s.
The book is roughly the same size and format of the others in the series -- 190 pages, 9 x 12, packed with hundreds of photos. What sets it apart from the others (University section of Uptown; Lower Garden District; Cemeteries; etc.):
1. It covers almost EVERY structure in its jurisdiction (rather than just most noteworthy and possibly a few typical ones).
2. It offers frank, constructive recommendations for how to restore and improve current (as of 1977!) structures.
Its format is:
Dedication
Foreword
Intro
Map
Military history
US Mint
119 pp. of block by block photos and descriptions, from the 400-block at the river to the 3400-block at the bayou.
City Park (at the terminus of Esplande, after 3400 block)
Archival drawings
Photo index (which briefly describes each property with a thumb nail sized photo, referring the reader back to the place in that 119pp. body of the book). NOTE: the index is NOT by page number but by address and so if easy to use once you figure that out.
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Very nicely bound, on excellent glossy paper, and printed locally in Gretna by Pelican.
The black and white photos range from historic to 1970s. They are often as much as a full page, and are excellent.
Most interesting are the authors' frank comments about the present structures. They can be hysterical and a tad harsh, but most readers will agree. The flow of an entire block is often interrupted by a cheaply built and poorly designed 20th century monstrosity.
For example, 1341 Esplande (p. 159) is depicted in the index and described in the following way; "Perhaps the side galleries with iron supports and railings and brackets as well as the narrow vertical stripes of bricks alternating with the fenestration panels were an attempt by a planner to adapt modern brick, metal windows, and post-1950 architectural design to the Esplande vocabulary. If so, it failed." !!!
Or the introduction to the photo index (p. 151): "....Photographs illustrate structures that range from the fine to the terrible. Elegant nineteenth-century homes presently in bad condition are recommended for restoration, and ill-designed, unsuitable modern buildings are condemned. Original, attractive features of mutilated buildings are highlighted as are acceptable features of mediocre architecture. Similarly, unacceptable alterations spoiling the integrity of houses are decried. Recommendations for the entire street are presented, and attention given to the despoiling of all important intersections as well as most corner locations....."
The reader will pardon the sometimes elitist tone and condemning attitude because the insights are so rich and the recommendations often seem so wise.
One interesting exercise is to read the 1976 descriptions of these homes, with the recommendations for restoration and then to drive by and see what has happened to them since then.
Famous structures, BTW, include the US Mint, Cabrini High School, Beauregard's statue at City Park, St. Louis No. 3 Cemetery, and a number of major churches and mansions. The human stories of their construction is amazing: enormous and gorgeous mansions built by French, "Americaines," Free Men of Color, Jews, and others. And the more modest homes also have their stories as well, which often appear in this book. Quite a gumbo.
This volume is a must-have.
November 12, 2016
Having walked the length of Esplanade a few times when staying in New Orleans, I was looking forward to this book which I ordered on line.
I am disappointed that all the photos and pictures are black & white. The book doesn't remind me at all of the atmosphere of Esplanade and to me the style of writing is dry. That said, if I returned to the city I would take the book with me and would perhaps appreciate it more then.
I am disappointed that all the photos and pictures are black & white. The book doesn't remind me at all of the atmosphere of Esplanade and to me the style of writing is dry. That said, if I returned to the city I would take the book with me and would perhaps appreciate it more then.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews