Image via Bruno, Inc.
Last week, developer Josh Bruno’s proposed $20 million, 18 story luxury apartment development the Granaio went in front of the city council for approval.
Bruno was seeking a decision by the council to overturn an HDLC ruling that denied certain architectural features.
Among them, Bruno was seeking a variance to allow him to build overhangs, which would have extended like balconies over the sidewalk.
Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, whose district includes the neighborhood, led the charge to shoot down the project because she didn’t like the design. All of the council members followed her lead, with the result being a 6-0 to reject the Granaio design, essentially killing the project in its current form.
Bruno mentioned that he has a contingency plan for the design and plans to pursue. The new design moves the overhangs from the building’s front to the sides, meaning they will extend out over the neighboring warehouses rather than we public right of ways.
Bruno has options in place to lease the vertical air space over the neighboring properties.
The development, designed by Wayne Troyer of Studio WTA, would have featured 18 luxury units, private parking, a doormen, pool, and smart building Crestoron technology to control use of energy, lighting and sound, heating and cooling, flood water management and retention. Granaio’s 360 degree views, and rooftop terrace would have been be accompanied by green living Bio walls to substantially improve the stormwater retention. There would have been a rotating art installation to assist in joining the Art and Warehouse Districts together.
about the author: CSB Staff
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Our city council needs to tour European cities and see how places with much more historic districts than ours incorporate modern design alongside their old buildings, because this flat refusal to build anything modern is obnoxious
This building is inappropriate because of its height and insensitivity to the other buildings around it. We have a long history of balconies and galleries in New Orleans, as do Barcelona and Paris among others. If it failed, it did so because of the inadequacies of the architect. The illustrations should have shown it from different pedestrian level perspectives (including the shading it will create) – not from some bird’s eye view that no one will ever see. All good infill buildings in Europe and across America are URBAN in the sense that they are sensitive to context and enhance the whole through repetition and pattern and offer great street presence. This design ignores – no, aggressively threatens – its neighbors. While we want to see incremental evolution in height and design, 10 stories shoehorned on a small lot between two-story buildings is outright pugnacious.
[…] Bruno is part of a crop of up and coming developers in the city. He recently planned a $20 million residential tower in the Warehouse District, which was shot down by the City Council. […]
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[…] made changes to a number of the floors since initially being shot down City Council in April 2014. The depth of the second floor balcony was reduced, making the overhang on the ground floor smaller […]
[…] Bruno has been known for his green walls — he has one on his Veterans Centro shopping center in Metairie, and proposed one on his recently planned $20 million, 18 story luxury apartment development which got shot by the city council last year. […]
[…] The proposed hotel sits next to the site where developer Josh Bruno once proposed a $20 million “sliver” condo building, which was rejected by the city in 2014. […]