Historic Buildings of the French Quarter

Rating:
Summary: Another classic work from the master on N.O. architecture
Review: Founded by the French, developed by the Spanish and the West Indian Creoles, finally acquired by the United States, le Vieux Carre, the French Quarter, is sixty-six square blocks of solid history spread over nearly three centuries. Despite several desvastating fires, a surprising amount of early architectural history remains, and this lush volume of pen-and-ink drawings of buildings and floorplans is notable as both history and art. An introductory section describes the sources and development of vernacular architecture in south Louisiana, the roles of wrought iron, brackets on shotgun houses, and the courtyard plan, and the influence of each succeeding cultural overlay. Then, arranged into chronological chapters, Vogt describes in some detail more than forty structures and locations, both public, like Jackson Square (originally la Place d'Armes) and the U.S. Mint (erected in 1838 on the site of Fort San Carlos), to private dwellings, including the Peyroux House (built c.1780), the Bosque House (1795), and the La Rionda-Correjolles House (c.1810)-- with a full discussion of generic building types and styles for each period. How many visitors to the Quarter are aware that Pat O'Brien?s inhabits what was once the townhouse of planter John Garner, or that Preservation Hall was the home of Madame Fanchon, a free woman of color, from 1817 to 1866, or that the Le Carpentier House on Chartres was not only the home of novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes and the birthplace of Paul Morphy but also the site of a series of murders by the Italian "Black Hand"? A glossary and selected bibliography will also be useful to the student, though an index would have been very handy as well. The author is well known among students of New Orleans architecture; his _New Orleans Houses: A House-Watcher's Guide_, now in its fifth printing, has become the standard reference.

Rating:
Summary: Blends history with architectural insights
Review: The New Orleans' historic French Quarter was founded in 1718 by the French, moved to Spanish control, and was home to generations of occupants who built grand ballrooms, courtyards, and Spanish structures. Historic Buildings Of The French Quarter uses black and white line drawings to blend history with architectural insights, illustrating building types and styles of different eras and profiling some sixty representative buildings. Students of either regional history or architectural history will find it revealing.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, excellent, excellent...
Review: This book, as other reviewers have said, is about the architecture of the Quarter and the history that drove its trends and changes. It is an excellent book if you are interested in architectural details and some floor plans in historic buildings of the Quarter as well as typical buildings that would have been built there. If you want to learn about types of buildings in the Quarter, why the Quarter developed as it did and see line drawings of specific historic buildings, then this is your book.

If you want a glitzty photo book showing interior design of said buildings, this is NOT the book for you (thank God, like we need more of that!).

It is my hope that Lloyd Vogt branches out and produces a similar book in other areas with a distinct architectural heritage as it appears to me that most books that address this topic are of the interior design eye-candy type.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, excellent, excellent...
Review: This book, as other reviewers have said, is about the architecture of the Quarter and the history that drove its trends and changes. It is an excellent book if you are interested in architectural details and some floor plans in historic buildings of the Quarter as well as typical buildings that would have been built there. If you want to learn about types of buildings in the Quarter, why the Quarter developed as it did and see line drawings of specific historic buildings, then this is your book.

If you want a glitzty photo book showing interior design of said buildings, this is NOT the book for you (thank God, like we need more of that!).

It is my hope that Lloyd Vogt branches out and produces a similar book in other areas with a distinct architectural heritage as it appears to me that most books that address this topic are of the interior design eye-candy type.