Tour an Architect’s New Orleans Home, Where Breezy Style Meets Italian Panache | Architectural Digest
Architectural Digest recently published an article detailing Morris Adjmi's sensitive approach to restoring his historic home in New Orleans' Garden District.
A series of scattershot renovations had left architect Morris Adjmi's New Orleans house feeling disjointed. Built in the 1840s, the Greek Revival–style home was adapted into an Italianate-influenced one in the 1880s. Then it was renovated again post Hurricane Katrina. That last overhaul, shares Adjmi, “wasn’t sensitive to the original architecture. It was clear that it was a great house and had an amazing garden, but it needed a significant amount of attention.” Adjmi and his architect-photographer wife, Lisa Mahar bought the house, devoting significant energy to historical research before renovating its sprawling 4,500 square feet over the next two years.
The two-year-long renovation, says Adjmi, who is behind luxury buildings in New York and Washington, DC, paved the way for the architect to do what he might have found unthinkable years earlier: open an office in his hometown. “Things change,” reflects Admji on breaking his decades-old vow to never come back. “It’s been a good place to do both: play and work.”