New Orleans is a city with a rich history and a variety of spiritual traditions, evolving as it has over the three centuries since its founding in 1718 and producing many now-forgotten churches. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina left many of these buildings in desperate need of renovation. One of them, Sacred Heart Church, is now being renovated as a mixed-use residential community developed by Atlanta-based Columbia Residential and locally based nonprofit Providence Community Housing.
Redevelopment in the Treme and Mid City area has been robust since Hurricane Katrina but hasn’t yet taken root along St. Bernard Avenue between the 610 and I-10, where the church is located in New Orleans’ 7th Ward. However, the section has become a targeted redevelopment zone and prices for real estate are rising. Had the Sacred Heart team not acquired the property when it did, the land would have sold to private developers for much more.
Sacred Heart Church peaked during the era of segregation, when each New Orleans' municipal parish had two Catholic churches. Sacred Heart had been the church for the local white community, but its congregation dwindled in the 1970s and, eventually, the church folded altogether.
The building had a brief revival as a food pantry but suffered from years of disuse even before Katrina. The site included a vacant lot where the parish school had been, which the project team included in its master plan as a spot for new product.
Some challenges, solutions, and insights behind the development, now known as Sacred Heart at St. Bernard:
Structural Challenges
The church renovation includes a community space and six residential units, some of which are two stories with an internal staircase and upstairs bedrooms overlooking the two-story "living room," housed within the arched ceiling of the former church. This dramatic visual effect is enhanced by exposed brick. Every unit will include at least one station of the cross, two of which will contain remnants of the confessionals.
Adding units inside the church presented some challenges. The foundation wasn’t built to sustain the new load presented by interior walls and plumbing, for one, but a crawl space under the building allowed the team to reinforce the foundation at key places. Another problem surfaced in the mechanicals of the structure, including HVAC and, particularly, the intensive plumbing needed for the six residential units, which had to go through the floor. The old church sanctuary serves as a community space with a lounge, pool table, and coffee bar area as well as mailboxes.
Existing Highlights
The goal of the renovation was to maintain as much of Sacred Heart Church’s character as possible, leaving the envelope virtually untouched and the interior a two-story volume. The main aisle of the church became a double-loaded corridor with residential units on each side. The original brick was cleaned and left exposed. Most of the confessionals couldn’t be preserved, but the team compensated by leaving symbolic niches in the brick where they used to be. There is also an apartment in what was once the choir loft.
In its design process, the team engaged a historic-property consultant who recommended preserving the main aisle to highlight the volume of the church. The original aisle was terrazzo, which the team hopes to keep, and the rest concrete, which the designers want to leave exposed with a concrete overlay. Inside the units, new construction abuts the corridor, with the exposed brick remaining in the two-story living room.
Rezoning and Funding
Sacred Heart at St. Bernard is a mixture of market-rate, workforce, low-income, and public housing. Because the project includes low-income housing, the team was able to secure some applicable grants and tax credits.
Along the street where the parochial school once stood, a second building includes retail on the first floor and residential units above. Some of the retail space is occupied by a group that teaches creative writing to inner-city children in various urban locales in the country, raising funds through a “haunted” theme store on the retail storefront. In each city it serves, the group’s fundraising storefront takes on a different theme; for the New Orleans location, it's harnessing the city’s unique tourist industry, built around ghosts, graveyards, and Louisiana Voodoo.
Despite access to tax credits and grants, the project team encountered some financial challenges. The structural reinforcements and interior plumbing, for example, made the six units inside the church expensive. With only 53 units for the whole project, those costs were harder to offset than they would have been in a larger development.
The building with retail was designed in an “L” shape to create a courtyard around a prominent oak tree. The courtyard links the old and the new and provides a view for units overlooking the space, resident access from the street, and controlled visual access, which intrigues passersby.
A Growing Trend
The adaptive reuse of historic churches is seen elsewhere, as well, in New Orleans, including the auditorium church of St. Ann Parish, which became a senior housing center, and the former St. Cecilia Church, which is now a PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) Center. (PACE is an affiliate ministry of the Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.) Both the St. Ann’s and St. Cecilia projects were designed by Ron Blitch, a longtime leader in the field of school and church conversions.
New Orleans houses other dilapidated churches that certainly could be revitalized as residential, commercial, or retail spaces. Retaining the historic and architectural character of these community treasures promotes ownership and preservation within their neighborhoods.
