Latter & Blum Building
- Architect
- Thomas Sully
- Year
- 1895
- Style
- Chicago School
- City
- New Orleans, LA
- Collection
- the french quarter
Completed in 1895 to a design by Thomas Sully, the Hennen Building — later known as the Latter & Blum Building — was New Orleans' first skyscraper, holding the title of the city's tallest building until 1904. Built in the steel-framed Chicago School style, rare for the city, the 11-story tower at 800 Common Street gained its top floor in a 1922 addition and later anchored one of downtown's largest historic tax-credit conversions.
the building
Steel-framed facade. As a Chicago School design, the building's street facade expresses the steel skeleton frame underneath rather than hiding it behind a masonry mask, a structural approach new to New Orleans in 1895.
An added eleventh floor. The building opened with 10 stories; an eleventh was added in 1922, a rare instance of a historic downtown tower actually growing after completion.
Conversion to the Maritime Apartments. In 2009, architect and developer Marcel Wisznia, who had bought the building in 2006, converted the former office tower into two floors of commercial space beneath 105 luxury apartments known as the Maritime Apartments, financed with state, federal, and new-markets historic tax credits.
the style
Chicago School design is rare in New Orleans, where masonry-bearing wall construction dominated well into the 20th century. The Hennen Building's steel frame let it rise higher than any building the city had seen, and it held the title of New Orleans' tallest building from 1895 until 1904.
More on Chicago Schoolthe architect
Thomas Sully was a prominent New Orleans architect who designed this building, completed in 1895, in the then-novel Chicago School style.
significance
Individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and also counted as a contributing building within the Central Business District's historic district, the Hennen Building is recognized as New Orleans' first and oldest skyscraper.
nearby
- Immaculate Conception Church
- Shell Building
- Orpheum Theater
- Hancock Whitney Center
- Saenger Theatre
- United States Custom House