New Orleans group celebrates midcentury modern style | Entertainment/Life

Janice Hall is a champion of midcentury modern architecture, so much so that she started a Facebook page called “Midcentury in New Orleans,” which is coming up on 3,500 members and has grown to encompass home tours, a cocktail club and a general social movement.

Hall’s posts include all things midcentury: exterior photographs, interior design, cars, art, cocktail recipes, fashion, landscape and architectural plans.

Her affinity for the genre began early in life. She grew up in Chicago, whose tony North Shore suburbs are richly dotted with stunning midcentury homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Her first job was in the Illinois Center, which famed architect Miles van der Rohe designed.

“It was kismet,” Hall said.

Defining the style

Midcentury architecture, popular from the 1940s to the mid-1970s, focused on minimalist design, open spaces and a connection to nature.

At the humble end of the midcentury genre is the ranch house. Nine out of 10 homes built in the 1950s fall into this category. The homes are characterized by an asymmetrical one-story shape, an open floor plan, a low-pitched roof with wide eaves and broad façades.

At the loftier end of the spectrum is the midcentury modern aesthetic in which the scale is more dramatic and the integration of outdoor spaces via large windows and glass walls is more pronounced.

Cantilevered balconies and decks are standard, as are geometric shapes and the use of stone and natural wood, as well as custom-designed, often built-in, furniture.

A growing interest

Hall’s interest in the style deepened while living in Palm Springs, California, where the photographer, competitive tennis player, interior designer and art buff founded an art gallery downtown with an adjunct gallery space on the ground floor of the Horizon Hotel, a midcentury modern icon designed by William F. Cody in 1952 in a city celebrated for an abundance of the glamorous stye.

When life brought her to New Orleans, Hall did not expect to find her favored architectural style in a city known for shotgun houses, Creole cottages and Victorian mansions. But a drive down the local Lakeshore Drive enlightened her. Deeper exploration and afternoon drives started to reveal scattered pockets of it.

“I became a woman on a mission,” Hall said, “like something out of the ‘Blues Brothers,’ but then, I am from Chicago.

“I found old flyers from just after World War II advertising the development of the lakefront ‘Just like Chicago!’ they read.”

Inspired, last summer Hall created the Facebook page.

Spreading the word locally

“I thought I might get five followers and make a few new friends,” she said. Hall would drive around, taking pictures of houses that excited her, then post them on her page, taking care to obscure a home’s address. Word spread and she was often contacted by the homeowners who sometimes invited her to tour the inside of their homes.

“I started this for fun. It’s fun, social and educational. I do this for nothing but the sheer enjoyment of doing it,” she said.

Plans include chef-driven dinner parties with wine pairings in midcentury homes, and there is discussion of a book.

The cocktail club meets at 5:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month at Ralph’s on the Park. Hall works with restaurant management to determine which midcentury cocktail to serve — something like a Martini, a Vesper, a Gibson, a Tom Collins, a Pink Squirrel, a Grasshopper or others of that ilk. Participation is free, and all are welcome. Just pay your own way at the bar and jump in.

MidMod Home Tour

For fans of midcentury modern style, the Preservation Resource Center is sponsoring a happy hour and tour of three such homes from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, in the Lakewood South neighborhood of New Orleans.

Two of the homes were designed by Albert Ledner, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright; one of them was his personal dwelling. The third was the personal residence of architect T. Sellers Meric. All are within walking distance. 

Tickets, $25-$35, are on sale at prcno.org/events.