After more than 10 years of planning, construction crews are finally laying down the infrastructure for House on the Hill, an infill residential development in Beauregard Town that will be developed on a 1.5-acre city block bordered by Louisiana Avenue and Napoleon, America and St. Joseph streets.
But the project is still a long way from become a reality, says Beauregard Town resident and landscape architect Suzanne Turner, who is developing the House on the Hill along with her husband, Scott Purdin.
“It’s moving more forward lately than it has in the last 10 years,” Turner says. “But we still have a ways to go.”
As envisioned, House on the Hill will be a communal neighborhood developed around a 100-year-old Acadian-style home on Louisiana Avenue. Plans call for using the historic home—the original “House on the Hill”—as a shared space for neighborhood meals, cooking demonstrations, farm-to-table dinners and other community gatherings.
The development will also encompass 12 new single-family homes of around 2,000 square feet each, four studio residences of around 600 square feet each, shared green space and four existing structures on the site—a private art gallery, two occupied homes and a historic residence undergoing restoration.
Once infrastructure work is complete, Turner plans to begin marketing the project to potential buyers. So far, she has talked to several interested parties but doesn’t have any firm offers.
“We’d like someone to be interested enough to build the first house,” she says. “We hope there will be a mix of families, empty-nesters, people of all ages.”
Turner first conceived the concept more than 20 years ago, when she began sharing family meals with her neighbors on Louisiana Avenue.
“I have a long commitment to neighborhoods and community, and I have a commitment to food and eating healthy,” she says. “The aim is to develop a community that is based on an interest in being a community.”
See an overhead illustration of the House on the Hill development layout.
—Stephanie Riegel
