Looking down Decatur, le Vieux CarréNew Orleans
Detail of the Customs House, New Orleans
Decatur Street
Yep, after work my carpool partner and I headed into the Quarter on a Saturday night.
Dinner on Decatur. Then back to this neck of the woods where I am about to go to bed early. She, my vehicular voisine, is working tomorrow and I am staying home to get over this flipping cold and do some laundry.
I can no longer say I have not ventured into the Quarter after sunset. Well, actually, there was that one time when the company we work through put on a dinner. OK, I haven't been a virgin for a while.
Anyway, that's about as wild as I have gotten in Louisiana.
I still owe y'all a restaurant review and I'm still too tired to write it. Hasta mañana.
As a further note on architecture, I was astonished by the post-modern look of some of the Custom House along Decatur toward the Iberville corner. Very simplified and sleek while retaining neoclassical proportions.
You may read more about the New Orleans Customs House here and here and here.
The impressive exterior of the U.S. Custom House retains its original design, which includes modified Greek and Egyptian Revival elements. The immense four-story building occupies the full trapezoidal downtown city block bounded by Canal, North Peters, Iberville, and Decatur Streets. Due to the shape of the lot, the corner of the building at Canal and North Peters Streets is rounded. The majority of the building is constructed of brick sheathed in gray granite from Quincy, Massachusetts; however, the entablature material is cast iron.
Each of the four facades is similar in design. In the center of each facade is a projecting pavilion consisting of four round, fluted, modified Egyptian, engaged columns. The first floor of the structure is faced with rusticated granite stonework. The cast-iron entablature contains widely spaced triglyphs (three vertical bands) in the frieze and dentils (small square blocks) in the cornice, and supports a triangular pediment above the central portico on each facade. Near both ends of each facade is a slightly projecting bay composed of four modified Egyptian pilasters supporting the entablature. (source)
New Orleans Customs Houseviewed from across Canal Street
--the BB
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