What might have been: Competition Design Drawings for the Fontainebleau Gates Design competitions were a common means of awarding architectural commissions at the turn of century. The Louisiana Architectural Association developed regulations for local design competitions in 1905. 1912 the New Orleans Architectural Club announced a competition to design the gates to Fontainebleau Drive. The club chose a committee of three noted local architects to select the winning design. The judges were Samuel S. Labouisse (nephew of the famous architect H. H. Richardson), Francis J. MacDonnell (architect of Old Doris Hall at Tulane University, the Parke-Davis Building, First Baptist Church, many local residences, and other buildings) and Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis (designer of Jones Hall on Tulane University's campus, among many other buildings, and father of Nathaniel “Buster” Curtis, Jr., of the Curtis and Davis firm, designers of City Hall, the public library, the Rivergate, the Superdome, and hundreds more buildings around the world). They arrived at their decision by independent ballot and their decision was unanimous. In their report, the committee stated: "The program called for an entrance to a street 80 feet wide, with two sidewalks, two driveways and a grass plot down the central axis, and the solutions naturally fall into two groups, viz: -- "(a) With four piers, by which scheme the central vista is more or less blocked. "(b) Two piers, keeping an open view along the axis. "The Committee is of the opinion that the latter plan is in general the better, as a more open vista is secured, and more unity of design, giving a distinct impression of a single entrance or gateway, as opposed to the effect of a screen or double entrance." The committee went on "to commend the excellent quality of draughtsmanships shown by the members of the Architectural Club" and offered brief criticisms of the winning and first two placed designs. Click the images or hyperlinked text to see enlarged versions of the designs, to read the judge's critiques, and to see how the judges' comments influenced the final construction of the Fontainebleau gates.
The images are from from Architectural
Art and its Allies,
Volume 8, Number 4, October 1912 (New Orleans, Louisiana Architectural Association),
courtesy the
Special
Collections Division, Tulane University.
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