Preservation Resource Center

30 APRIL 2007 PRESERVATION IN PRINT
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cial space on four blocks at the intersection
of Burgundy and Bartholomew
streets has been more controversial and
harder for some neighbors to accept,
despite extensive redesign in response to
concerns of the Architectural Review
Committee (ARC) of the Historic
District Landmarks Commission
(HDLC) and some Bywater residents.
The Bywater Neighborhood
Association’s response to the development
plans has been more tempered
than that of individual neighbors, whose
strong opinions have ranged from support
for the juxtaposition of the initial
Icinola modern industrial design with
Bywater’s 19th century shotgun houses,
to requests for designs related more to
traditional New Orleans’ features such
as balconies, galleries, and shutters, to
outright resistance.
The developers have held four charrettes
to update neighbors and seek input.
Their presentations to Bywater residents
are part of the process that could make or
break the project. If the residents don’t
want it, their influence could lead council
members to vote against the project.
ARC has given its support to the revisions,
and Icinola will be on the commission’s
April agenda. Many neighbors are
satisfied by the architect’s adjustments,
but others still are not convinced that
the project suits Bywater.
Icinola plans call for some 230,000
square feet of building space. In addition
to 106 residential units, the plans
reserve the ground floor in each of the
four buildings for commercial purposes.
About 45,000 square feet of space is
intended for neighborhood-oriented
businesses encased in glass such as an
8,500 square foot grocery store, a coffee
house, restaurants, dry cleaning drop off,
fitness center, small professional offices,
a newsstand, music store, art gallery and
a small hardware store. Two community
spaces would be available for small
meetings and presentations.
The nearly three-acre area of the
planned Icinola project is surrounded by
residences. The development would
incorporate some existing structures on
the site, including the Frey Meatpacking
plant, and remove a transformer and
electrical supply structure, the Social
Security Administration building and a
small concrete shed. Two historic shotgun
houses would be relocated elsewhere
in Bywater.
The developers are seeking a Mixed
Use Planned Community overlay to the
current Light Industrial zoning designation.
That change would remove the
possibility of light industrial uses for the
properties and enable the developers to
add housing.
In a meeting March 6 with ARC,
architect Wayne Troyer presented
Bywater Art Lofts would create 37 apartments within former garment factory.
changes to the previous design meant to
address neighborhood concerns about
density, height, and style, while still
meeting objectives for energy and planning.
ARC and Bywater residents had
deemed the original designs too modern,
too tall, too cold, too massive and too
aggressive, with design elements in contrast
to the neighborhood. Concerned
comments expressed a need to see more
familiar forms such as galleries, balconies,
shutters, and landscaping.
Troyer acknowledged that the first
designs were “unabashedly modern.”
The new designs attempt to blend in
more harmoniously with the neighborhood.
In the changes, the architect has
sought to make the designs more compatible
by aiming for a sympathetic relationship
to existing residential buildings
while incorporating 21st century elements
and contemporary building techniques.
Some of the changes were to
step back heights from the street and
from adjacent homes. The four buildings
appear to be a series of many buildings.
Developers Shea Embry and Cam
Mangham say that Icinola would supply
much-needed services and environmentally
responsible housing. Residences in
the Frey building are slated for the 55-
and-older age group. The plan calls for
201 parking spaces on two floors in an
area not visible from the street.
Residents would park on the second
floor, and the first floor would contain
commercial parking. When the commercial
operations are closed at night,
residents could use the additional parking
spaces. Having commercial activity
on the ground floor is expected to help
lower the crime rate by adding more
vibrant street activity, Troyer said.
Architect and Tulane professor John
Klingman was the most outspoken ARC
member at the March 6 meeting. He
said he was most impressed by the way
the buildings mediate in scale between
the larger sections and smaller buildings
in the 19th century context.
Klingman noted that this presentation
was the fourth one presented on
Icinola as the architect has adjusted the
plans. “Obviously the architect’s ears are
open,” he said. “You are using New
Orleans elements in ways that are appropriate.
I’m very comfortable with it.”
Another ARC member deemed the
new designs “refreshing.” His concerns
previously had been how the height and
density affected historic preservation by
casting shadows across the yards of nearby
19th century buildings.
Regardless of the architecture, some
National Rice Mill near the Mississippi River would reuse an abandoned industrial
building to create 60 residential units.
residents believe that the development’s
commercial operations and density
belong on St. Claude Avenue, not in
the center of an historic area of single
and double one- and two-story
dwellings. The development plan for
Bywater, Marigny, St. Roch and Treme
is to focus commerce on St. Claude
Avenue. Some people fear that commercial
enterprises inserted into the middle
of a Bywater residential zone would
compete with businesses on St. Claude.
Moreover, some residents worry that
Bywater’s brick streets could not withstand
the increased volume of service
truck traffic for the planned commercial
operations.
Nevertheless, neighbors are very
interested in the prospect of a grocery
store being offered in conjunction with
the Icinola project, because they say
there are no markets within a sevenmile
drive. Neighbors asked if the developers
had secured a grocery store commitment.
Embry said they are working
to get commitment for a small, moderately
priced grocer.
“We need development and
growth,” acknowledged Blake Vonder
Haar, Bywater resident and president of
the New Orleans Conservation Guild
Inc., “but this is the wrong project in
the wrong space. Density is a major concern
that will change the tenor of the
entire neighborhood.” She also believes
that the plans call for “obscenely high
building heights.”
“The project is akin to putting a
Wal-Mart into Jackson Square,” Vonder
Haar added.
In comments addressed to HDLC,
Bywater resident Meredith Spivey urged
the commission to “treat Bywater just as
you would treat the historic French
Quarter, Warehouse District, and
Faubourg Marigny…. Your decision on
this project may set a very dangerous
precedent for historic preservation in
New Orleans.”
Completion of the first building is
scheduled for February 2009, and the
entire development would be completed
by fall 2009, according to the developers.
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