New Orleans architect makes art out of ‘place’
Lee Ledbetter’s new book revels in blending of old and new styles
New Orleans’ cultural history can be seen through its architecture, from 18th-century French plantations and 19th-century Spanish homes in the French Quarter, Greek Revival examples in the Garden District and a smattering of Victorian homes and Creole cottages throughout the city.
Architect Lee Ledbetter appreciates them all, and when he has an opportunity to update those homes for modern living, that’s when he hits the sweet spot of what he likes about both new and old homes and home furnishings.
The Louisiana native’s new coffee-table book, “The Art of Place: Lee Ledbetter Architecture
and Interiors” (Rizzoli; $55; 240 pp.), showcases just that. Many of the 15 featured projects are in New Orleans, and they demonstrate the art, architecture and culture of that city.
Ledbetter, 60, has worked on a number of Houston homes, and this book includes one of them, the home of a young attorney who purchased a home designed by Marvin Watson Jr. in 1980. Ledbetter opened up the home’s interior by removing a number of walls and filled the spaces with a mix of new custom furnishings as well as midcentury classics by Mies van der Rohe, Harvey Probber, Milo Baughman and Cedric Hartman.
Since the book came out in March he’s been busy promoting it at book signings, and
he’ll visit Houston on Thursday for an event at the FOUND home-décor store.
He took time recently to talk about architectural history, his love of antiques and getting through Hurricane Katrina with his staff.
Q: How did Hurricane Katrina affect your office and your work?
A: We were doing a large house in New York in Hyde Park, and my client didn’t want the project to be interrupted. He owned a high-end nursing home that was vacant — it was like hotel rooms with kitchenettes — and he let us move into it. There were 12 adults, seven kids, three dogs, two cats and a hamster, and we all moved to Brooklyn and lived on top of each other.
That hamster lived in this little orb. We’d be at our desks and dogs were laying in the corner and babies were crying and there was this orb rolling all around the room. It was hilarious. The generosity that New Yorkers and, particularly people in Brooklyn, had for us was incredible. The kids got into private schools in Brooklyn for free and even had their uniforms donated. It was amazing; it was really something else. We were there from September through December (in 2005), then we came back to New Orleans.
Q: Have you had many projects in Houston?
A: Yes, my first one was a renovation project in Tanglewood for a couple who became like family to me. After that, I did one in Memorial, and since then, I’ve always dabbled in Houston.
Q: You went to school and worked at great architecture firms on the East Coast. What made you want to return to Louisiana in 1996?
A: I grew up in north Louisiana, but I (went to New Orleans) a lot growing up and always wanted to live there. I had a fantasy of a French Quarter home with a banana tree and a courtyard. New York was great, and I worked at some great firms and a lot of friends I made there are still close. But my dad started getting sick in the early 1990s, it was Alzheimer’s. I’m gay and knew I wouldn’t have kids. My siblings were having kids and were busy, and I really wanted to be part of my family again. I knew I wanted to hang a shingle, and it was more of a possibility down here, where I had connections, so it made sense. I’ve never regretted it or looked back.
Q: How did growing up in Louisiana inform your view and practice of architecture?
A: The town I grew up in, Monroe, had some great architecture. As a child, I felt like I was forever a passenger in my mom or dad’s car. Through the passenger window, I was looking at houses fly by. Some were ranch houses, others were really nice midcentury modern houses, and yet others were neo-Palladian. There was a great architect named William Stubbs, and he did it brilliantly, and the homes all had these lush lawns and azaleas and live oaks. So when you see this stuff, when the images are flying by you multiple times a day throughout your entire childhood, it becomes
imprinted in you. I always appreciated architectural style without judgment. I saw beauty in all of it, and the landscape was always an important part of my thinking.
Q: I can’t tell you how many times someone in Houston has told me they wanted their home or gardens or a courtyard to feel like it was in New Orleans. What is it about New Orleans culture and style that makes everyone want to copy it?
A: The oldest architecture in New Orleans is French; you have the Creole cottages in and around the French Quarter, Tremé and Bywater. There’s still some French plantation houses on the river in Marigny, it’s 18th century. The French Quarter burned in late 18th century, so much of its architecture is actually Spanish. Uptown area, where I live, near Tulane, is early-20th-century architecture, which is Victorian. There’s beauty in the houses, regardless of the splendor or wealth of the original family.
There’s a lot of variety, and it was all done well and also, to think like a Houstonian for a minute, our climates and vegetation are so similar. We really are these lush, verdant places.
Q: Why did you want to write this book now?
A: That makes it sound like I had so much control. I was in a book that Rizzoli published, “Heart and Home,” by Linda O’Keefe. It was about designers’ own homes, where architects and designers lived. Our house was in there, and Rizzoli really liked the book, and they reached out to her about finding out if I had enough work to do a monograph on.
They felt like I had a story to tell. I’m an architect — I’m licensed in eight states — and I’m serious about interiors. I’ve never shied away from interiors; it always felt natural to me.
Q: A number of the homes in the book are very old, if not historic. Does that give you the perfect canvas for your style of mixing old and new?
A: I love working in older homes. There’s such an inventory of those in New Orleans. I’ve compared my practice in New Orleans to New York because we do interior architecture. So many in New York do that because the work in Manhattan is almost always in really old buildings. The only homes (architects or designers) do ground up are in the Hamptons or on the ocean.
In New Orleans, we’re not allowed to tear anything down built pre-WWII. Had I moved to Houston instead of New Orleans, I’d have more house projects from the ground up. I love ground up, but I also love taking an existing building and working with that and making it more open. That’s one thing we do in old houses in New Orleans that have these small openings between the hallway and parlors because the fireplace was in the parlor, and they didn’t want to waste heat on the hallway.
We open them up and you can start to see it … you get natural light into the hallway and see the gleam of the light on the wood floors. It completely changes a house and how it feels and how you use it. When clients see the walls start coming down, they get giddy.
Q: New Orleans has so many antiques stores. Do you shop there a lot for your projects?
A: New Orleans is a great place to shop, but we shop all over the world. Firstdibs.com changed everything. There are so many different platforms, and we use all of them. It makes our life easier and saves clients money to not have to travel. There’s danger in it, too — if you don’t see something in person, there’s a risk involved.
Q: What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
A: That we have aspirations to elevate homes to a work of art. The book is called “The Art of Place” because it speaks to making art when we make place.