The 2012 restoration of a more than 100-year-old Acadian-style home on Louisiana Avenue—which Suzanne Turner and others in the neighborhood call the “House on the Hill”—has inspired the creation of a new residential and community project by the same name in Beauregard Town.
“The city was tearing it down,” says Turner, a 30-year Beauregard resident and principal at Suzanne Turner Associates landscape architecture firm. “We saved the house and rebuilt it.”
Now Turner and her husband, Scott Purdin, are hoping to develop up to 12 new residential buildings and some community spaces on a 1.5-acre site bordered by Napoleon Street, America Street, St. Joseph Street and Louisiana Avenue.
The entire House on the Hill project would encompass the new buildings, the restored home that inspired it all, and four other existing structures on site—a private art gallery, two occupied homes and a historic residence undergoing restoration.
The 12 new residences would include seven single-family homes with two to three bedrooms, as well as four or five studio residences. Though she acknowledges the project still has a long way to go, Turner says she envisions House on the Hill as “a demonstration project to show how contemporary housing can be inserted in the context of historic houses.” The aim, she says, is to “develop a community that is based on an interest in being a community.”
Turner submitted her plans to the Planning Commission late last week along with Brian Goad, former president of the Beauregard Town Civic Association. The plans call for shared space centered around a community kitchen, garden, greenhouse and the historic house, which will serve as a place for residents to meet and host social events.
“Before we do any of that we’ll have more neighborhood meetings and meetings with the councilwoman,” she says.
The area lies in District 10, represented by Councilwoman Tara Wicker. Turner says most neighbors are on board with the broader plan, and the greenhouse and a fence have already been built on site.
“If we sign someone interested in building these houses,” Turner says, “we will start as soon as possible.”
Turner taught landscape architecture and urban planning classes at LSU for more than two decades, so she’s eager “to finally be able to do some of the things that I used to work on with my students.” But she says she’s most excited about helping grow the Beauregard community that she’s called home for more than three decades.
“The neighbors we have now—we eat a lot of meals with them and share a vegetable garden already,” she says. “What I’m most excited about is increasing the residential component of this neighborhood.”
