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10 Haunted Houses in New Orleans

CasaSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:00:46 -0700

Are you ready to see more haunted houses? If my slideshow on California haunted houses wasn't spooky enough, I've just got the thing. New Orleans is perhaps America's most haunted city, so it's no surprise the place is full of ghosts and floating entities. Come take a look.

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House Tour: Black White Yellow's Cheerful New Orleans Apartment

CasaSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:00:43 -0700

While reading the design blog Black White Yellow, I was really impressed by the author's cheerful and stylish home, so I asked if she'd be willing to give us a photographic tour of her home. She lives in New Orleans, where she works as an architect, so it's no surprise that she has a keen eye for design. But what's truly inspiring about her happy, chic home is that she's created it on small budget. "My goal was to create a space on a shoestring budget that screams happy," she says. "It is a work in progress, of course, but I am happy with how much I have gotten done so far." Not surprisingly, the base of her coveted crib is black and white, with a lot of playful yellow accents and patterned textiles. Ready for the tour?

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Sandra Bullock and Jesse James Buy a Historic New Orleans Victorian

CasaSugar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:00:25 -0700

From Angelina and Brad Pitt to Nicolas Cage, New Orleans is becoming a popular place for celebs to settle, the latest transfers being Sandra Bullock and Jesse James. The pair quietly snatched up a historic Victorian home in New Orleans's Garden District for $2.25 million back in June. The 6,615-square-foot, five-bedroom, 4.5-bath home, known as the Koch-Mays house, was built sometime between 1860 and 1870. It retains many original Victorian design details, including ornately carved marble mantels, carved columns, large plaster medallions, shadow molding, and beautiful ornamental cast ironwork on its exterior. It's no surprise Bullock looked for historical details when doing her real estate shopping: the French Southern bistro she owns and designed in Austin, Bess Bistro, is in a historic building with tin ceilings and hand-painted floors. And although Austin won't be a far trip for the couple, they're guaranteed to find a good Creole shrimp meal in NOLA. See interior photos when you read more.

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Source: Flickr User alykat

The New Orleans 100: A Look at the Good That's Happened Since Katrina

CasaSugar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:00:33 -0700

The New Orleans 100 is a worldwide initiative to "highlight and encourage discussion among millions about 100 of the most innovative and world-changing ideas to take root in the city since Katrina." Creative maverick think tank All Day Buffet wanted to combat the negative press New Orleans receives in mainstream media by spotlighting the best things happening in the city, and let me tell you, it wasn't hard. There's a wealth of inspiring projects going on these days in the Crescent City in the worlds of art and architecture, culture, music, entrepreneurship, education, non-profit, and social innovation. We've actually talked about some of these art and architecture projects in the past during my New Orleans coverage, so don't be surprised if you hear bells ringing! Source

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This Just In: Jamie Lynn Spears and Fiancé Buy a Home

CasaSugar — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:30:52 -0700

Jamie Lynn Spears and fiancé Casey Aldridge have decided to settle down in LA - Louisiana, that is! The young couple and soon-to-be parents have purchased a modest but charming home on one acre in Kentwood, LA, according to Real Estalker. The cape-esque home sits on very private, heavily wooded property and features a classic Southern covered front porch, a big red barn, and a separate shed. No word on the number of bedrooms or bathrooms or any details on the interior, but it looks to me like a quaint enough "starter home" for the trio.

Student Designers Win Corrugated Chair Competition

CasaSugar — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:00:03 -0700

This year, the fourth annual Chair Affair student design competition asked architecture and package design students from 49 schools throughout North America to create chairs from nothing but corrugated board and glue. After much deliberation, the competition sponsors, American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation, have chosen six lucky winners. First place went to Cuesta College's Jessica Leung for her Hole on Hole chair, which I must say looks very inspired by the Campana Brothers' Favela Chair. To see and hear about the other winners, read more.

Two teams - Winston Mi and Jessica Brown of Rhode Island School of Design, and Sarah Clement and Michael Wallace of Louisiana State University - tied in second place. Mi and Brown's "Profile and Silhouette," clearly draws inspiration from architect Frank Gehry's innovative corrugated board 1972 Easy Edges Side Chairs, which are in the MoMA Collection. Meanwhile, Clement and Wallace's "A Corrugated Chair or a Chair Made of Corrugated" conjures Gehry's Bubbles Chaise Lounge, with its soft top layer.

Honorable mentions went to Keith Holman, Benjamin Shullaw, Neal Birchum, and Sean McDow for University of Oklahoma for their "Adjustable" chair; Brad Smith of Cuesta College for his "Caterpillared" chair; and Jonathan Coop of California State University Long Beach for his "Corrugated Board Chair."

It's inspiring to see how these students have created stylish, modern furnishings from such a common packaging and display material. Corrugated board is made from a natural renewable resource, and seeing these innovative creations suggests that the possibilities for sustainable furniture design truly are endless. While I personally like these contemporary creations, what I'd love to see is a corrugated chair designed for traditional design enthusiasts. Sustainable furniture designs will never make a huge impact if they don't appeal to everyone's tastes.

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Coveted Crib: Doullut Steamboat Houses (Part 2)

CasaSugar — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 08:05:53 -0800

On Friday I told you a bit about the Doullut Steamboat Houses. You can read the first half of the story here.

As you may have guessed, the houses were influenced architecturally by the steamboats that Doullot himself navigated. The deep decks that surround the houses, their narrow inner hallways, round smokestack chimneys, and square portholes, as well as the Mississippi River facing belvedere, are all distinctly derived from the vessels' architecture. Also in nautical fashion, much of the building (interior and exterior) was constructed with tin, and of course, the ornate woodwork with unusual pearls on the balconies is inspired by those on the steamboats that cruise the mighty Mississippi. In addition, the houses share many qualities with Louisiana plantation homes, which are generally grand, symmetrical, and boxy, featuring balconies and columns or pillars.

What you may not have suspected of the steamboat houses is that they were also largely influenced by the Japanese exhibit building, or teahouse garden building, at the St. Louis World's Fair 1904, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The exhibit building spawned the second level and pilot house concave roofs and glazed tiling of the scroll-shaped columns of these New Orleans treasures.

400 Egania Street:

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503 Egania Street:

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Artist of the Day: George Rodrigue

CasaSugar — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:00:42 -0800

George Rodrigue was born and raised along the banks of the winding Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. After working briefly in New York as a commercial artist, he returned to his native Louisiana in 1967 to paint the Cajun culture. He now lives and works in Lafayette, and is perhaps most widely known for his Blue Dog series. Starting in March, the new exhibit George Rodrigue's Louisiana: Forty Years of Cajuns, Blue Dogs and Beyond Katrina will be showing at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Source

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Have You Been Through a Hurricane?

CasaSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:00:36 -0700

As Tropical Storm Gustav makes its way toward the Gulf Coast, practically three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina hit (which I myself experienced firsthand), I'm feeling pretty uneasy. The storm has already killed 11 people in the Caribbean and is projected to hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast on Monday. Yikes. I'm sure plenty of you have been through one hurricane, if not several. Have you? How do you prepare your home for an impending storm? Do you pack up and leave, or do you stick it out? Has anyone been affected by a storm this year?
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Architecture Styles: The Shotgun House

CasaSugar — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:00:49 -0800

The Creole Townhouse isn't the only architecture style the world should thank New Orleans for. The Shotgun was also developed in the Louisiana city between 1850 and 1910, and is the predominant type of house there. A Shotgun is a long, narrow rectangular structure, usually no more than 12 feet wide with doors opposite each other at both ends. Each of its three to five rooms open onto the next with no hallways to beget privacy. The Shotgun gets its name, legend has it, from the saying that a shotgun blast at the front door could pass uninterrupted through all the rooms to the back. To hear more about Shotguns, read more

The structure is typically a one-story house raised 2 to 8 feet above ground on brick piers, and also features a narrow front porch covered by a roof apron and supported by columns and lacy, Victorian jigsaw brackets. There are several variations of this style, including the Double-barrel Shotgun, the Camelback, and the Double Width Shotgun. Double-barrel Shotguns are basically duplexes, or two separate Shotgun houses sharing a single, central wall to allow more houses to be built in an area. The Camelback is a Shotgun with a second story built onto the rear of the house. A Double Width Shotgun is a single structure that's twice the width of a normal Shotgun.
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