Bywater Home Tour is Today from 12-4pm

BYWATER HOME TOUR THIS SUNDAY!!! April 3rd, Noon to 4 Buy tickets and get information at 906 Mazant Street. $12 BNA members, $15 general public

Seven Spectacular Houses to see on the Home TourHarriet Swift Bywater News Editor This year’s edition of the Bywater Home Tour promises to be one of the best house tour events in New Orleans this year. And in house-mad New Orleans that is no small achievement. Tour chairperson Robyn Halvorsen has assembled seven venues in the heart of Bywater, each a representative of the aesthetics and ethos of Bywater. The residences from a factory converted to artists’ live-work spaces to a once unrecognizable Creole cottage returned to its 1830s appearance to a new custom home that blends perfectly with the Bywater streetscape. Set for the afternoon of April 3, the seven sites are within easy walking distance of each other, on or near Macarty Square, Burgundy Street, between Mazant and Pauline.

The gotta-see in this year’s tour is the completely new home at 840 Pauline Street, the residence of developer Pres Kabacoff and his partner, Bywater’s voudou priestess Sallie Ann Glassman. Any new residential construction in Bywater causes curiosity. The recently completed two-story house on the corner of Burgundy and Pauline streets has been the object of neighborhood speculation since the surveyor markers appeared on the lot. Kabacoff developed the Bywater Art Lofts which fill most of the block bounded by Burgundy, Pauline, Dauphine and Independence streets. He filled in the unkempt northeast corner with his own home. The home is actually two structures, the two-story, narrow house and a boxy, unadorned building that almost joins the Art Lofts wall. Within the compound is a courtyard, which is accessible from almost every room of the houses. It’s a cool, green outdoor room with a lap pool. The house is decorated with Glassman’s paintings and artwork from artists in Mexico, Haiti, Morocco and New Orleans. Bright, tropical colors are used inside and out, with whimsical touches such a copper chimney in an onion dome shape, and a driveway gate with hand-carvings. Perhaps the most startling thing about the house is its air-conditioning system: None. Other than open windows and fans. Kabacoff designed the house for maximum green efficiency, solar panels, American clay walls and a water harvesting system.And there’s more: 906 Mazant Street, Camellia Manor, the home Shea Embry and Cam Mangham (Tour headquarters): This imposing double gallery house is one of Bywater’s landmarks, with its prominent six white columns and lush, open gardens. The house dates from the 1840s, when it was a single story frame building. It was probably added to and embellished in the late 19th century, taking on its current appearance. When Embry and Mangham bought the house in 2006, it has been a bed and breakfast, for many years. They renovated, upgraded and reworked the house into a family home that they shared with Cam’s parents, who moved from Baton Rouge to live in New Orleans. The camellias that surround the house are the work of Will Mangham, a well-known gardener who is an expert on the plants. The garden is also the inspiration for the house’s new name, Camellia Manor. 918 Mazant Street, the home of Doug Brantley and Kevin Viveratti: When the pair bought the house in 2003, they knew they had tons of work ahead of them. The run-down double shotgun needed basic upgrades and maintenance. As the work proceeded, Brantley and Viveratti were surprised and pleased to discover the house’s genuine nature underneath the sheetrock and dropped ceilings. Instead of an early 20th century double shotgun, they realized their house was an 1830s Creole cottage that had been bowdlerized. The house has been restored with its original beaded board ceilings, wainscoting, French doors and wood floors. The lovely back garden has been planted with heirloom New Orleans flowers and shrubs. 815 Alvar Street, the home of Tracie Ashe: This unassuming 1915 shotgun camelback has the outward hallmarks of a traditional New Orleans house of its type. Entering the house is an exciting jolt as it transforms from trad to sleek contemporary. Ashe, an architect, bought the house in early 2004 when it was little more than a shell. It had survived a fire only to be abandoned during a renovation. The gutted house gave her few choices as the walls had been removed and most of the interior details were lost. Ashe took the raw space as an inspiration and created a clean, minimalist interior. The galley kitchen, loft bedroom and slim tri-part archway at the entry are highlights of Ashe’s modern interpretation of shotgun living. 3828 Burgundy Street, the home of Roberta Gratz: New Orleans is the part-time home of New Yorker Gratz, who is widely known as an urban critic, writer and preservationist. Her books on the rejuvenation of cities are classics: “The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way,” “Cities Back from the Edge” and the just published, “The Battle For Gotham.” She visited New Orleans numerous times after Katrina, sometimes to write about our recovery, sometimes to work on recovery projects. Inspired by the city’s gritty determination to rebuild, she bought this classic Eastlake shotgun double for a second home. The house had been renovated but not restored. Gratz removed some unsympathetic modern hardware and had the cypress mantels, pocket doors and millwork meticulously restored. It may come as a surprise to find the house furnished with the lean, angled furniture of Modernism. The pieces are manufactured by her late husband’s firm, Gratz Industries, which fabricates high-end architectural and design work (they were the first U.S. manufacturer for Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona furniture). (Read Gratz’ New Orleans articles on her website, http://www.robertabrandesgratz.com). 3820 Burgundy Street, Maison de Macarty, the home of Loren Penton and Will Poole: This 19th century house had been a popular Bywater bed and breakfast for two decades but went into a steep decline with absentee owners. Penton and Poole bought it in 2010 and did a complete renovation of the main house (6,000 square feet) and backyard cottages in an astonishing eight (8!) months. The main house and cottages have been reroofed, replumbed, rewired, repainted and reimagined. The two-story main house dates to the 1860s but has undergone numerous remodels and modifications. Penton and Poole have embraced the past and present. The interior recalls the 19th century with chandeliers, period furniture and elaborate color schemes. The 21st century operation of the house is less obvious but impressive with sophisticated use of solar energy, low-flush toilets, recycling and garden composting. (After visiting Maison de Macarty be sure to read the blog the couple posted as they renovated the house; it is wonderfully entertaining: http://www.maisonmacarty.com). 3725 Dauphine Street, Bywater Art Lofts, Dara Johnston, Unit 127 and George McClements, Unit 130: Once a factory that housed the J.H. Rutter-Rex Manufacturing Company, this 1920s building was retooled as apartments in 2008. HRI, the New Orleans development company that specializes in repurposing historic properties (and owned by another Home Tour host, Pres Kabacoff), planned to turn the badly deteriorating building into mixed income housing. This plan morphed into low-cost housing for artists, with apartments configured to provide generous studio space with living quarters. The project’s success was linked to qualifying for the Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program and the Low Income Tax Credit Program. The IRS objected to the artists-only requirement as potentially discriminatory. HRI and another historic properties developer in Minneapolis lobbied Congress for help and succeeded in amending fair housing laws to include artist-only housing. Today there are 37 units in the building, 30 one-bedrooms and seven two-bedrooms. The building is defined by the 210-foot corridor that runs down the center, a light-filled space that acts a town square and exhibition space. Two residents have generously opened their apartments for the Home Tour, Dara Johnston and George McClements.

The Bywater Neighborhood Association (BNA) is a 501C-3 non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to developing community awareness in and about the Bywater neighborhood. Founded in 1975, the Bywater Neighborhood Association has continually sought to improve the area. From the mundane aspects of clean-up campaigns to the complicated issues of historic preservation, zoning, and urban planning, the Association has diligently served as the guardian and spokesperson of the neighborhood. A Local Historic District administered by the Historic District Landmarks Commission, Bywater has been a recognized National Historic District since 1986.