Thebuildings and architecture ofNew Orleans reflectits history and multicultural heritage, from Creole cottages to historic mansions onSt. Charles Avenue, from the balconies of theFrench Quarter to anEgyptian Revival U.S. Customs building and a rare example of aMoorish revival church.
The city has fine examples of almost every architectural style, from thebaroque Cabildo tomodernist skyscrapers.
Creole cottages are scattered throughout the city of New Orleans, with most being built between 1790 and 1850. The majority of these cottages are found in theFrench Quarter, the surrounding areas ofFaubourg Marigny, theBywater, andEsplanade Ridge. Creole cottages are 1½-story, set at ground level. They have a steeply pitched roof, with a symmetrical four-opening façade wall and a wood orstucco exterior. They are usually set close to the property line.[1][2]
![Side gabled roof with narrow gabled dormer windows and an abat-vent roof extension[2]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDauphine_St_FQ_Dec2013_Pink_Creole_Cottage_2.JPG)
![Weatherboard Creole Cottage with two sets of French doors and two double hung windows[2]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aStFerdinandNOLABurgundyUpRiverCreoleFront.JPG)
Many buildings in the Americantownhouse style were built from 1820 to 1850 and can be found in theCentral Business District andLower Garden District. American townhouses are narrow, three-story structures made of stucco or brick. An asymmetrical arrangement of thefaçade with a balcony on the second floor sits close to the property line.[3][2]
Creole townhouses are perhaps the most iconic pieces of architecture in the city of New Orleans, comprising a large portion of theFrench Quarter and the neighboringFaubourg Marigny. Creole townhouses were built after theGreat New Orleans Fire (1788), until the mid-19th century. The prior wooden buildings were replaced with structures with courtyards, thick walls,arcades, andcast-iron balconies. The façade of the building sits on the property line, with an asymmetrical arrangement of arched openings. Creole townhouses have a steeply pitched roof withparapets, side-gabled, with several roofdormers and strongly show their French and Spanish influence. The exterior is made ofbrick orstucco.[4][2]
The shotgun house is a narrow domestic residence with doors at each end. This style of architecture developed in New Orleans and is the city's predominant house type. The earliest extant New Orleans shotgun house, at 937 St. Andrews St., was built in 1848.[citation needed] Typically, shotgun houses are one-story, narrow rectangular homes raised on brick piers. Most have a narrow porch covered by a roof apron that is supported by columns and brackets, which are often ornamented with lacy Victorian motifs. Many variations of the shotgun house exist, including double shotguns (essentially aduplex); camel-back house, also called humpback, with a partial second floor on the end of the house; double-width shotgun, a single house twice the width of a normal shotgun; and "North shore" houses, with wide verandas on both sides, built north ofLake Pontchartrain inSt. Tammany Parish.[5][2]
![Double shotgun camelback (or shotgun double camelback)[6] in Carrollton](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPlum_Street%2c_Carrollton%2c_New_Orleans_27_June_2023_-_02.jpg)
Double-gallery houses were built in New Orleans between 1820 and 1850. Double-gallery houses are two-story houses with a side-gabled or hipped roof. The house is set back from the property line, and it has a covered two-storygallery which is framed and supported by columns supporting the entablature.
The façade has an asymmetrical arrangement of its openings. These homes were built as a variation on the American townhouses built in theGarden District,Uptown, andEsplanade Ridge, areas which in the 19th century were thought of assuburbs.[3]
California bungalow houses were built from the early-to-mid-20th century in neighborhoods such asMid-City,Gentilly Terrace,Broadmoor, and scattered throughout older neighborhoods as in-fill. California bungalows are noted for their low-slung appearance, being more horizontal than vertical. The exterior is often wood siding, with a brick, stucco, or stone porch with flared columns and roof overhang. Bungalows are one or one-and-a-half-story houses, with sloping roofs and eaves showing unenclosed rafters. They typically feature a gable (or an attic vent designed to look like a gable) over the main portion of the house.
Due to refurbishings in the Victorian style after theLouisiana Purchase, only a handful of buildings in theFrench Quarter preserve their original colonial French or Spanish architectural styles, concentrated mainly around the cathedral and Chartres Street. Most of the 2,900 buildings in the Quarter are either of "second generation" Creole orGreek Revival styles. Fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed most of the original French colonial buildings, that is, "first generation" Creole. They were generally raised homes with woodengalleries, the only extant example beingMadame John's Legacy at 632Dumaine Street, built during the Spanish period in 1788. TheUrsuline Convent (1745–1752) is the last intact example of French colonial architecture. Of the structures built during the French or Spanish colonial eras, only some 25 survive to this day (includingthe Cabildo andthe Presbytère), in a mixture of colonial Spanish and neo-classical styles.
Following the two great fires of New Orleans in the late 18th century, Spanish administrators enforced strict building codes, requiring strongbrick construction and thick fireproof walls between adjoining buildings to avoid another city fire and to resist hurricanes but the Spanish did not directly influence much of the Quarter's architecture. Spanish influence came indirectly in the form of Creole style, a mixture of French and Spanish architecture with some elements from theCaribbean.
Two-thirds of the French Quarter structures date from the first half of the 19th century, the most prolific decade being the 1820s, when the city was growing at an amazing rate. Records show that not a single Spanish architect was operating in the city by that time; only French and American were, the latter gradually replacing the former as Creole style was being replaced by Greek revival architecture in the 1830s and 1840s.
From its south end to the intersection with Claiborne Avenue,Canal Street is extremely dense with buildings. Each building, being no larger than half a New Orleans block, has a notably intricate façade. All of these buildings contrast each other in style, from Greek Revival, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco, to Renaissance Colonial, and one of Gothic architecture. Also there is Post-modern, Mid-century modern, Streamline Moderne, and other types of 20th-century architecture. However, most of these buildings have lost their original interiors because of hurricane damage and business renovations.
Jackson Square took its current form in the 1850s: theCathedral was redesigned,mansard rooftops were added tothe Cabildo and tothe Presbytère, and thePontalba apartments were built on the sides of the square, adorned withironworkbalconies. The popularity ofwrought iron orcast iron balconies in New Orleans began during this period.
St. Charles Avenue is famed for its large collection of Southernmansions in many styles of architecture, includingGreek Revival,Colonial, andVictorian styles such asItalianate andQueen Anne.
The city of New Orleans was the largest in theConfederacy at the start of theAmerican Civil War.The city was captured barely a year after the start of hostilities without military conflict in, or bombardment of, the city itself. As a result, New Orleans retains the largest collection of survivingantebellum architecture.
St. Charles Avenue is also home toLoyola University New Orleans andTulane University, both campuses of which sit across the street fromAudubon Park.
For much of its history,New Orleans' skyline consisted of only low- and mid-rise structures. The soft local soils are susceptible tosubsidence, and there was doubt about the feasibility of constructing large high-rises in such an environment. The 1960s brought the trail-blazingWorld Trade Center andPlaza Tower, which demonstrated that high-rise could stand firm on the soft ground.
One Shell Square took its place as the city's tallest building in 1972, a title it still holds. The oil boom of the early 1980s redefined the New Orleans skyline again with the development of thePoydras Street corridor. Today, high-rises are clustered alongCanal and Poydras Streets in theCentral Business District (CBD).
Located within the CBD is one of the world's most famous pieces ofpostmodern architecture,Charles Willard Moore'sPiazza d'Italia.
The district has a number of significanthistoricist buildings. Perhaps the most notable are theMoorish revivalImmaculate Conception Church and theEgyptian revivalU.S. Custom House.
Lafayette Square has some notableart deco civic buildings.
New Orleans is known for its elaborate European-style cemeteries, includingGreenwood Cemetery,Saint Louis Cemeteries, andMetairie Cemetery. Because of New Orleans' highwater table, graves are not dug "six feet under": stonetombs were the norm. Manycemeteries in New Orleans have historical significance.
Many organizations, notably the Friends of the Cabildo[7] and thePreservation Resource Center,[8] are devoted to promoting thepreservation of historic neighborhoods and buildings in New Orleans. New Orleans has suffered from the same problems with sinking property values andurban decline as other major cities. Many historic structures have been threatened with demolition. DuringHurricane Katrina andHurricane Rita, several historic New Orleans neighborhoods were flooded, and numerous historic buildings were severely damaged. However, there is a general notion by both rebuilders and new developers to preserve the architectural integrity of the city.
Bruno, R. Stephanie (2011).New Orleans Streets: A Walker's Guide to Neighborhood Architecture. Pelican Publishing.ISBN 978-1589808744.
Campanella, Richard,Geographies of New Orleans : Urban Fabrics before the Storm, Gretna, LA, Pelican Publishing, 2006.
Kingsley, Karen.Buildings of Louisiana, New York: Society of Architectural Historians, 2003.
Lewis, Peirce.New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape, 2nd ed., Santa Fe, NM: Center for American Places, 2003.
Toledano, Roulhac B. (2010).A Pattern Book of New Orleans Architecture. Pelican Publishing.ISBN 978-1589806948.
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