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Gold Seal Lofts

New Orleans, Louisiana

In Design-Build alliance with Woodward Design+Build, VergesRome Architects designed an apartment complex in Mid-City, converting the former Gold Seal Creamery production plant building into 31 mixed-income loft apartments. The adaptive reuse infill project incorporated innovative green design features that aligned with many LEED for Homes guidelines, facilitating a CDBG grant, bonus depreciations, tax credits and abatements, all integral to the creative financing for the project.

The existing former creamery plant, built in 1954, consisted of an 18,000 sf 2-story blond brick production plant building lined on two sides by a 1-story, 11,000 sf “lean-to” warehouse building.
The conversion design retained the existing structures, transforming the ‘lean-to’ warehouse into additional apartments with 16’ ceiling heights. Existing exposed steel bar joists were retained to draw upon the character of the existing facility. Approximately 15’ of the “lean-to” roof, between the 2-story plant and new façade of the ‘lean-to’ apartments, was removed to create an interior courtyard allowing natural light into the apartments facing the courtyard.

Existing steel bar joists were left exposed over the courtyard, sealed with high performance paint for durability outdoors.

Transom windows were utilized over each door and window to maximize natural light and to emphasize the ceiling heights. Stained concrete apartment floors provided tenants with a low-maintenance, environmentally friendly, non-allergenic alternative to carpet.

Windows were replaced with missile-impact resistant, low-e windows that echoed the architectural style of the original glazing. The controlled-access parking lot was paved with high Solar Reflective Index (>60) concrete to reduce urban heat island effect.

Maximizing sustainable and green design features where feasible, the Gold Seal Lofts feature Energy Star and water-conserving appliances, and high-efficiency HVAC and hot-water systems. Photovoltaic panels provide solar energy to reduce energy dependency. Two contiguous vacant lots were planted to provide a community garden for the Gold Seal tenants, while the facility’s landscaping minimizes water use. Set within a walkable community with proximity to mass transit, the Gold Seal Loft conversion exemplifies how smart reuse of blighted facilities can benefit an entire neighborhood.

Mid-City Market

New Orleans, Louisiana

VergesRome Architects developed site and retail concepts for Stirling Properties for a shopping center situated along the proposed Lafitte Greenway bicycle corridor in Mid-City and extending to the corner of Bienville Street and North Carrollton Avenue. The center features a 53,000 SF Winn-Dixie grocery store at the rear of a parcel of property that was an area of blight for several years.

The site planning and conceptual design process took place with the full participation and input of neighborhood groups such as the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization, and the Friends of the Lafitte Corridor. Residents, future greenway users, and local merchants understand the attraction the centrally located shopping area will have for neighbors living, working, and going to school in the area. At the same time, the opportunity for the Mid City Market to be a unique urban redevelopment project created considerable excitement and anticipation.

Pan American Life Center IberiaBank Atrium

New Orleans, Louisiana

VergesRome, facility architect for the 28-story Pan American Life Center in the New Orleans CBD, was commissioned to redesign the seven-story atrium situated on Floors 21 through 27.

The program’s criteria were creation of a gathering space for Iberia Bank’s employees to enjoy lunch or breaks, and for hosting special after-hours events. VRA added a monumental stair of glass and steel for easy access from an upper floor to the heart of the space. Materials of weathered wood flooring integrated with turf and carpet systems reflect and connect to the outdoors. The new kitchen and conference room design correspond to the atrium finishes and design. Retractable Nana Wall glass wall systems that separate the kitchen and conference room from the atrium when closed can open to the atrium and adjacent spaces.

South Plaquemines High School

Port Sulphur, Louisiana

VergesRome Architects designed South Plaquemines High School for the Plaquemines Parish School System, on the site of the former Buras Middle School in destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Designed to accommodate 650 students in over 125,000 SF of area, the school provides for the school district’s projected population growth. Flood and storm surge risks are mitigated through the design at 18’ above grade, in compliance with FEMA mandates. With a cost of $37.3 Million, the school opened for students in Fall 2013. VRA also designed a new vehicular access bridge to the school in a separate, CDBG-funded improvement project.

Five science laboratories and a library/media center are outfitted with modern cutting-edge equipment and technology capabilities.  A 700-seat Gymnasium with 200-seat Auxiliary Gym, training and equipment rooms, locker/shower/toilet rooms, and offices are provided for Physical Education.

Arts education is supported through Band/Chorus, Drama/Speech classrooms; Music Library; offices; and music performance practice rooms. The Visual Arts room is augmented by a Kiln Room. A 700-seat Auditorium with stage, dressing rooms, prop construction room, and costume room was completed in early 2015.

In addition to the core academic areas, South Plaquemines High School also contains a Special Education Department serving Middle and High School Special Education students, with a daily living kitchen; resource and conference rooms; a Speech and Therapy classroom; and seclusion space. A Career and Technology Education Center is incorporated within the school. The school has 5,000 SF of administrative and guidance offices, and 8,000 SF in foodservice, dining and common areas.

Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy

Avondale, Louisiana

A dramatic new educational facility for Jefferson Parish Schools, the Patrick F. Taylor Regional Science and Technology Academy was designed by Joint Venture of Perez, APC, and VergesRome Architects, APAC. Completed in time for classes in August 2013, the $27 Million, two-story, 99,762 SF facility serving grades 6 – 12, is located in JEDCO’s Churchill Technology Park in Avondale, Louisiana. Conceived as an incubator benefiting students, Patrick Taylor Academy also includes a 6,843 SF Conference Center managed by JEDCO.

Twenty-Eight classrooms are distributed in three two-story classroom wings; each has its own spacious, flexible area that enhances students’ collaborative learning and social experiences. Storefront glass walls between classrooms, flexible spaces and clerestory windows bring daylight far into the interior. All classrooms, Chemistry, Biology, Robotics and Multimedia Labs, and Drama Classroom have state-of-the-art Smart Boards and hardwired and wireless internet access. Collaborative learning and team building is further encouraged in the Video Conference Room and Green Roof Deck.

The Student Commons is a two-story large gathering space for student addresses, presentations, socialization and classwork preparation. A food-court-style Cafeteria opens to an outdoor courtyard.

Architectural details provide teaching tools, including exposed cast-in-place concrete stucco, and exposed HVAC, plumbing, electrical, technology and fire protection systems. Suspended acoustical clouds and baffles expose building systems while providing indirect lighting distribution and sound attenuation. Large roof and floor projections provide sun shading, allowing large expanses of curtain wall on south-facing classrooms.

2018 Award of Merit, AIA Louisiana
2018 Excellence In Sustainability Honor Award, USGBC Louisiana
2014 New Orleans Magazine, New New Orleans Architecture: 6 Buildings Among the Best
2014 Award of Excellence / Outstanding Project, Learning by Design
2014 People’s Choice Award, AIA New Orleans

4848 Veterans Boulevard

Metairie, Louisiana

VergesRome Architects designed a two-building suburban retail and dining destination, on the former site of a large sprawling automobile dealership. Completed in Summer, 2012, the new development offers national tenants Bonefish Grill, Panera Bread, and Pei Wei. VRA’s design created distinctive identities for each establishment while complying with their individual national brand identity and design criteria. The visually appealing 9,000 SF building housing Bonefish Grill and Panera Bread is a combination of brick and stucco, with distinctive entries. Overhangs serving as light shelves project light through the spaces and allow the use of tall windows. The second building, with Pei Wei and retail space, is an 8,400 SF, predominantly brick structure that complements the other building while maintaining its own unique style through careful architectural detailing.

Christian Brothers School

New Orleans, Louisiana

The design for the 15,000SF expansion and renovation of the Christian Brothers School, located in the heart of New Orleans’ famous City Park, presented opportunities and challenges. Critical to the success of the design were the key components of scale, materials, color, and transition. Due to Christian Brothers School’s prominent location in City Park, the new addition had to aesthetically complement the Santa Barbara Mission style of the existing school. The scale of the new multi-purpose facility was diminished visually by the design of a balanced transition echoing the roof eave lines of the original structure.

The existing school building, a former vacation mansion converted into an educational facility in 1960, received a new science lab, a technology lab, and library, derived through a creative repurposing of the mansion’s second floor ballroom that had served as a non-regulation gym for 50 years. The new addition provided a multi-purpose hall, four new classrooms, offices, restrooms, and general storage. The new addition had to fit within a strictly allotted site adjacent to the existing school, and City Park mandated protection and preservation of all trees on site including historic live oaks.

South Plaquemines Elementary School

Port Sulpher, Louisiana

VergesRome Architects designed the South Plaquemines Elementary School in Port Sulphur, for the comprehensive hurricane recovery and mitigation plan developed by the Plaquemines Parish School Board and funded by FEMA. Designed to comply with FEMA’s strict mitigation requirements, the new $30.9 Million, 105,054 SF school, serving 870 students in Pre-Kindergarten through Sixth Grade, is a two-level structure raised 18’ above grade to mitigate future flooding. The ground level, with no occupied space, provides access to the zones above via stairways, ramps, and elevator.

The school’s ‘public’ side has the student drop-off area for autos, and ramp for visitor access to sports events in the Gym, school events, and meetings in the adjacent Cafeteria, Library/Media Center or Faculty Offices. The opposite side has the school bus loading zone, with entry to the school by stairs for older students, and by ramp for younger students. Columned arcades along Ground Level on both sides of the building visually lessen the huge void created by the building’s high elevation above grade.

Four activity zones comprise the floor plan: Classrooms; Cafeteria and Gymnasium Administrative/Faculty; and Library/Media Center/Conference space. Students in Pre-K – Second Grade attend classes on the second level while students in Grades 3 – 6 attend class on the third level. Strategically placed stairwells direct student traffic flow away from classrooms to reduce noise infiltration.

The placement of public areas in the Cafeteria/Gym and Library zones allows classrooms and offices to remain secured during after-school events. A partitioned stage between Gymnasium and Cafeteria allows simultaneous events in both spaces, and can be opened to provide a single, large performance stage. The cafeteria is an open 2-story space with clerestory windows bringing natural light deep into the interior, and its glass interior façade opens to a compact 2-story Commons Area with light well to allow more natural daylighting into Commons and Classroom corridors.

The school opened its doors to students and their families, faculty and staff, in time for the 2014-2015 school year.

Judge Lionel R. Collins Elementary School Major Replacement and Renovation

Marrero, Louisiana

The $13 Million Judge Lionel R. Collins Elementary School Major Replacement and Renovation project included both renovations and additions to the historic Westbank school.

The renovation of the late 1920’s, original one-story 11,700 SF existing brick school building, formerly Ames Elementary School, yielded four multipurpose classrooms, two special education classrooms, one computer lab, and one Physical Education classroom.

The renovation also provided a new Media center, a new kitchen and new Cafeteria/Auditorium that can accommodate 300 people in an auditorium setting. To enhance student safety, the school bus delivery and departure area functions are separated from pedestrian and automobile traffic. A new bus canopy was constructed in front of the original building.

Also included was the 48,660 SF addition of a new Administration building and three classroom pods designed to respect the scale of the surrounding Marrero residential neighborhood. The design provides 14 classrooms designed to support principles of Montessori teaching. Each classroom is provided with a Smart Board and an adjacent yard to supplement Montessori teaching methods.

The school’s main entrance was relocated to Ames Boulevard, with site improvements providing common lawn and physical education spaces.

VergesRome Architects delivered the project in Joint Venture with Imre Hegedus & Associated Architects.

Oliver Bush Playground Renovations

New Orleans, Louisiana

The site of the Oliver Bush Playground was a once-bustling 30-year-old park in the devastated Lower Ninth Ward that had been used as a staging area for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers equipment and materials in the aftermath of the floods.  VergesRome Architects provided design services that helped bring a much-needed playground and gathering space to Lower Ninth Ward residents.

Site improvements included complete re-grading of the softball field, all new sidewalks and fencing, new lighting for the softball field, four tennis courts, and redesigned landscaping. All new sidewalks at the site are wheelchair accessible.

All electrical service and site lighting were upgraded. Tennis courts were stripped to the subsurface and given new asphalt play surfaces. A freestanding restroom building was demolished and rebuilt to ADA guidelines, with all mechanical and electrical equipment relocated to a new second floor to mitigate future flood damage and loss.

The basketball pavilion was demolished along with its slab and replaced by a spacious open shelter over two regulation-size basketball courts. A third, uncovered court was re-striped. New playground equipment was installed atop a rubber play surface, with new walkways and benches, and a new 900 SF open picnic pavilion was designed for the facility.

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