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We’ve been working in New Orleans for a little over a decade, and the vision for South Market really started around 2009 when we really started to see the transformation taking place in New Orleans. What South Market does is really create that true urban living experience. Downtown New Orleans is an unbelievable place to live and to spend time. In New Orleans, we have this tremendous wealth of cultural assets, whether it be culinary, arts, music … it’s all right there either in downtown or a short distance from downtown. What we really wanted to do is create a first-class living experience where all of that was accessible.
The Standard is an 89 unit condominium development featuring one, two, and three bedroom homes. I think what’s unique about The Standard is it’s part of this larger mixed-use community that Domain is creating. The goal of the residences was really to make them timeless and classic, to have an open floor plan that was both flexible and functional and could work with a variety of different furniture layouts or lifestyles. The amenity deck is an urban retreat and has the comforts that you would expect in a five-star resort. The deck is about 30,000 square feet, offering a pool house, private cabanas, outdoor kitchens, and lush landscaping and really places where you can relax and reflect.
We knew if we were going to create a world-class building in New Orleans that we needed an architect of that calibre. Having been fans of his work, when we found out that Morris was from New Orleans and had grown up here, sketching buildings in the French Quarter and had gone to Tulane, it was really almost too good to be true.
I love New Orleans. I think it’s part of the reason why I became an architect, it’s stimulated me to think about how we could build and not copy. Half of our work is in historic neighborhoods or in historic districts and that’s one of the things that I think we do well. We understand what’s important about neighborhoods or what’s important about cities or what’s important about the context and we’re able to translate that into a new modern language or vocabulary, but not feel like it’s disconnected.
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We’ve absolutely set a new standard in New Orleans.