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Sisters of the Holy Family Motherhouse and Novitiate

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1955, Diboll-Kessels and Associates. 6901 Chef Menteur Hwy.
  • (Photograph by Karen Kingsley)
  • (Photograph by Karen Kingsley)

In 1955, the Sisters of the Holy Family founded by Henriette Delille in 1842 (see OR40) moved to these new quarters. Their Motherhouse occupies a large site preceded by extensive lawns dotted with trees. The building is roughly M-shaped in plan with end wings and a central rear wing reaching back to enclose cloister-like spaces. The facade is a bold modern design with a first story of glass that is slightly recessed. Above, a screen of closely spaced vertical columns covers two stories of colored glass organized in an abstract gridded pattern. A canopy shelters the central entrance and is surmounted by a freestanding low-relief sculpture in aluminum of Christ flanked by Mary and Joseph organized in a curved composition. The facade has all the more impact because the building is set far back from the street and approached by a long central driveway that is processional in effect; up close, however, the impact is diminished by a landscape design insensitive to the building’s modernist aesthetic.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Karen Kingsley and Lake Douglas
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Data

What's Nearby

Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (Industrial Canal)
Lakefront Airport (Shushan Airport)
Pontchartain Park and Neighborhood
Henry W. Bihli House
Musicians Village

Citation

Karen Kingsley and Lake Douglas, "Sisters of the Holy Family Motherhouse and Novitiate", [New Orleans, Louisiana], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/LA-02-OR210.

Print Source

buildings of new orleans book

Buildings of New Orleans, Karen Kingsley and Lake Douglas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, 250-251.

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