[caption id="attachment_5996" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Old house in New Orleans"]
[/caption]Carol Forsloff - Whether it is art along the fence around Jackson Square or the unique architecture across the city, most of the City of New Orleans is a work of art in all directions, worthy of your visit.
New Orleans, known for food, music and art, is tops in all three, most folks would agree who visit the Big Easy and find it is easy to fall in love with something beautiful.
What it is also known by those who appreciate the city, is the architecture that defines it.New Orleans is a national treasure for many reasons. Musicians talk about its jazz. Artists cling to their paintings as the evidence that the city should be preserved at all costs. People discuss important relationships. Folks talk about the great food that can be found on almost every corner. But in the greatness of the architecture the City of New Orleans reigns supreme.
Combine French, Spanish and homegrown American building styles, and you have the look and feel of a different kind of American city. This is one of the many reasons why folks who love New Orleans are always concerned about its welfare, whether from storms of its own making or those caused by outside forces. The whole of the city is a work of art, always in progress, and always alive.
 Carol Forsloff One of the many houses that look small but are really good-sized homes in Uptown New Orleans, a city with beautiful architecture. |
On St. Charles Street a walk down the boulevard or a ride on a streetcar will bring the visitor the views of old and gracious homes, some weathered, some hurt a bit from Hurricane Katrina and still showing a few wounds.
Despite the city's painful storms, from natural ones and those man-made as well, the homes of New Orleans tell the story of a Southern type of living, of living big and loud and open, with arms outstretched to God almighty and the angels as well as to every kind of sin that man enjoys.
What stories these houses could tell if they could talk. Suffice to say the elegance latticework, ironwork, lighting, high windows, elaborate doors bespeak interiors that likely rival the richest anywhere. It is a splendid journey to walk the boulevard and just look at the houses and wonder about the lives within them, past and present, and hope for future folk.
 Carol Forsloff This over-sized house is one of many types of architecture that makes New Orleans an interesting piece of art |
All over New Orleans there is a mix-em-up pattern in the architecture, with the primary emphasis of one type or another of Creole cottage, shotgun house and antebellum mansion in one or another of the various areas of town.
 Carol Forsloff One of the interesting architectural interests in New Orleans, showing the variety of homes |
Some of the key areas where Hurricane Katrina didn't fully engulf in its madness was Uptown, the Quarter and St. Charles Street, although some parts took some lickings. This city has an array of architectural styles that make a walk around a visual treat for sure.
New Orleans has had to be clever as the city has gone through its economic ups and downs. The codes have had to be flexible enough in parts to allow both businesses and residences to embrace each other, sometimes in the same space. That's especially true on Magazine Street in the Uptown section, where businesses are gently tucked into upscale home-like structures that are historical masterpieces. This allows a three-for the tourist trade, a place to shop, a place to gaze and a place to wonder about history and all. This is likely a place with its own stories, but they're kept silent as people wander along looking at windows and wondering.
 Carol Forsloff New Orleans homes have interesting street appeal and different styles of entrances, as this one has in the Uptown area |
But it's the French Quarter where history reveals itself in all its desperation and its glory combined.
Right within the confines of the area is the slave market where human souls were sold. Then there are the great vessels that carry supplies from the river into the Atlantic Ocean and the steamships that whistle to tourists “climb aboard.”
Everywhere, from the fine, distinguished homes on St. Charles Boulevard to the small, sideline streets of the city, there are also the Spanish and French-style dwellings, again intermixed with shotgun houses and cottages, many with expansive courtyards behind high cement walls.
Mystery whispers through the streets that wind through the Quarter. Even the hotels speak to tourists in whispered tones about love, sex, and intrigue. This is a place where sin has sat in almost every chair while genteel folks turned aside and entertained themselves in many, many ways. Those separate lifestyles continue to mix with the array of tourists that come and go through the hotels, bars, and clubs that line the streets.
 Carol Forsloff A dominant identifying architectural landmark in the French Quarter of New Orleans |
The City of New Orleans is truly a visitor's delight in culture certainly but also with homes that could never be truly replaced. It is a masterpiece of color, texture, design and artistic wonder that makes this grand lady a standalone piece of art.
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