Magazine + Nashville

5717-27 Magazine Street

New Orleans, Louisiana

2015
Renovation and additions to combine three historic wood structures into a single commercial building on Magazine Street
Butler Callahan Holdings, client
5,700 sf
Collaborators:

Wayne Troyer FAIA

Daniel Kautz

Megan Bell AIA

Ross Karsen

Photography:

Neil Alexander

Project Type: Commercial

The Magazine and Nashville development gathers 3 vernacular wood commercial  structures into a single commercial ‘shell’ building.  A strategy of preserving the historic uptown patterns is interwoven with a contemporary counterpoint of metal and glass slivers which slip in between the traditional structures.

In an effort to reinforce the historic streetscape, the facades of the two nineteenth century Victorian shotguns have been restored and a vernacular corner store style addition to the truncated third building replaced a corner parking lot which had previously detracted from the streetscape. The contemporary slivers are treated with generous glass and knife edge metal canopies to signal the entrances and overlay a complimentary aesthetic with the historic feeling of the street.

By inserting the contemporary additions and utilizing a strategy of framing large openings into the side walls of the existing buildings, the intervention provided flexibility to the developer. The subdivision of the commercial spaces into tenant spaces of different sizes is no longer necessarily linked to the traditional footprint. The existing spaces are allowed to flow through the infill bridges and the public entry sequences from the front and rear have been arranged to take advantage of entrances through the infill additions.

A restaurant tenant anchors the corner  building, first bridge addition and the back of the middle building where the kitchen is located; a film producer has set up an office and a screening area in the front of the middle building; the second bridge and third building have been built out as a jewelry store.

The pedestrian street life is further enhanced with an outdoor dining area for the restaurant and generous landscaping with reinterpreted porches and planters in front of the two shotguns.