814 HOWARD AVENUE APARTMENTS
LOCATION: Warehouse District, New Orleans, Louisiana
PROGRAM: Multi-Family Residential, Adaptive Re-Use
CLIENT: The Feil Organization
STATUS: Complete, Summer 2026
PROJECT TEAM: GOAT (Architecture and Interior Design); Moses Engineers (MEP Engineering); Marais Consultants (Civil Engineering); Highsmith Services (General Contractor)
Middle-scale housing, or multi-unit buildings with just a few apartments, is widely seen as a critically necessary component of any strategy to address the nationwide housing shortage. However, it can be very difficult to build today due to restrictive city zoning codes and rising construction costs. Meanwhile, many cities like New Orleans are also burdened with an abundance of small to medium scale, long vacant commercial spaces like the historic office building at 814 Howard Avenue in the city’s Warehouse District. These structures are often stoutly built in neighborhoods with easy, existing access to infrastructure and amenities, are frequently located in zoning districts that already allow for multi-unit housing and are invaluable contributors to a city’s urban charm that would be tragic to lose.
GOAT Design Team: Paula Bechara, Joanna Tanasescu, Ryan Harnish, Peter Spera III, and Colin VanWingen
The renovated front facade at 814 Howard Avenue. The color palette was developed to contrast with but complement the Feil Organization’s next door residential tower.
Conversion of these former commercial spaces into housing units has its own challenges and requires substantial imagination, creativity, and a committed client. GOAT began working with the Feil Organization in 2022 to conceptualize the re-development of this disused office building that was once home to the Fransen & Hardin law firm, George McGovern’s regional presidential campaign, and the administrative headquarters of Jaenke Service, one of the principal shapers of 20th century New Orleans. Constructed circa 1900, 814 Howard Avenue is a load-bearing masonry structure with a residential-scale three-bay front façade and a second story in the rear.
The funky little building has a distinctive neighborhood presence on Howard Avenue and is a welcome re-addition to a streetscape that has recently become much more vibrant with the opening of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience next door and the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute (NOCHI) across the street. After studying several options for the building’s re-use, the project team ultimately chose the most difficult but exciting path: to transform the building into four unique residential rental units that would complement Feil’s recently completed residential tower next door.
Completed interior of one of the ground floor apartments, exhibiting a contemporary open floor plan, exposed historic structural elements, and sophisticated modern finishes.
One of the benefits of adaptive re-use is that there are often a number of unique, even quirky, existing elements that can add significantly to the character of the new space and would be prohibitively difficult to recreate today. The project’s reimagined interior design embraces some of these interesting surviving elements in playful, thoughtful ways. Each unit features uncovered masonry walls, exposed original timber framing, and restored wood detailing. These elements establish the basis of the interior design palette, while the added finishes provide a simple, contemporary contrast to the texture and patina of what has been preserved. One-of-a-kind touches like decorative concrete pineapples on the front facade or the ornate woodwork of the internal stair have been restored to become idiosyncratic pillars of the project’s personality.
Each of the three ground floor units were designed with access to an internal garden courtyard that gives residents shady, semi-private leisure space and allows daylight to penetrate the entirety of each apartment’s interior. Buffered from the sounds of the city by heavy masonry construction, the courtyards offer a bit of outdoor respite more commonly associated with the Old-World luxury of the Vieux Carre.
Much of the project’s character is crafted from idiosyncratic existing elements such as the coffered millwork ceiling and masonry fireplace in this ground floor apartment.
Projects like 814 Howard Avenue are emblematic of the GOAT team’s approach to the adaptive re-use of historic structures. We seek to retain, restore, and highlight the elements that tell a building’s unique story, while applying contemporary creativity to the elements that need to be added to meet today’s needs. The result is a beautiful bridge between eras, much like the city of New Orleans itself.
