Elisio Lofts
501 Elysian Fields Ave.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Collaborators:
Wayne Troyer FAIA
Julie Babin AIA
Ross Karsen
The project seeks to create a unique building infused with great meaning and contextual texture. The site is located at a critical nodal point in the city and will act as a gateway to Marigny, inviting people to live creatively within a context of views of the Mississippi River , the industrial spaces lining its edge, and the historic neighborhoods of the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny.
On the site, there are two existing one-story former manufacturing buildings that have been vacant for 10 years. The design proposes to remove one of these buildings while preserving the other for use as a new destination restaurant. Flanking the existing building will be two new residential mid-rise structures containing one-, two- and three-bedroom lofts for a total of 72 units. The building on the Elysian Fields end of the site will be a 6-story building along the wide boulevard, with a 4-story building on the more residential side. The commercial spaces on the ground level of the taller building are activated by a direct relationship to the boulevard and a new pedestrian alley featuring commercial spaces. The 4-story building also contains two levels of structured parking to alleviate congestion on surrounding streets.
Both buildings are concrete super structures with light gauge metal framing, clad with a metal rain screen wall assembly that projects and recesses to create a geometric pattern that is activated by sunlight. The buildings relate to the historic masonry and metal buildings in the area with their simple massing, depth of cladding, and sharp detailing. Constrained only by the site and innate properties of the materials, the intervention emphasizes pedestrian-scale urbanism and architecture, and invokes history implicitly through the selective use of materials and the adaptation of regional vernacular strategies.
Renderings by Neoscape and Andrew Graham