I LOVE IT

I want one.

I'll take the one next door instead.

Except the "porch" isn't a porch, it's a bunch of stairs (no neighborhood/socializing friendly rocking chairs for that "porch"), and the awning provides no protection from 1) rain or 2) sun, two things you need protection from in south Louisiana. And don't tell me you can just sit on the steps instead of in a rocking chair: sitting on rain-saturated steps in the Louisiana heat to jaw with your neighbor is about as much fun as an alligator attack.

Me want one, too!!!

I love it in many ways but want to agree with architexas. The porch is too shallow for use as a porch and the overhang, similarly, is too narrow to offer rain protection. I can't possibly understand why except that A) perhaps they were trying to maximize interior space or B) they let their concept overrule practical concerns and comfort.

To me it looks like a very cheap version of the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii.

quit yer complainin' bout the lack o' porch! it's got more of a porch n' the one next door! i like it i love it and i think it's so sweet they're wanting to make nice affordable homes.

I've seen this house many times and loved it. When my partner and I were house hunting here in New Orleans last summer, we wondered how much it had cost to build, since it was gorgeous and we'd love to buy a slender lot and do the exact same thing. Too bad I didn't investigate further since I now see that the budget is amazingly affordable. It's great to get to see the interior as well.

Maybe its just me, but that is one ugly building! Interior looks nice though.

I totally see your point about "poorly designed" outdoor space (even though I don't live in the South so I have no practical understanding of these considerations).

However, I think we can all agree that "Alligator House" is an awesome name.

I wish I understood why architects feel the need to build homes that have no context or connection to the neighborhood they're in. This building is an architectural abortion.

@flixbix: I agree that it's nice they're trying to build financially accessible housing, but one of the reasons the neighborhoods in N.O. were so vibrant - even the economically challenged ones - up until their decimation by Katrina was because of their porches. Porches in the South (and elsewhere) provide people with a place to hang out in the summer, out of the heat of the sun, and encourage residents to get to know their neighbors, which leads to a greater sense of community (as seen the Musician's Quarter). I have no problem building modern houses in traditional neighborhoods, but the designers should have paid more attention to the SOCIAL context of the neighborhood.

I guess I'm just at a loss as to why - seeing as they appear to have plenty of room for a porch - they didn't put the space to good use. In such a constricted lot, a usable porch makes more sense to me than a row of steps that looks like it's absolutely baking hot.

What they have done is used every tiny bit of the narrow lot. That's very normal for New Orleans. A bigger porch or more outdoor space would have cut down on the home's sq. footage. As you can see from the houses beside this Alligator House... they did the same thing. The house is built right up to the edge of the lot with a set of stairs for access. Sure, everyone would like a bigger front yard or porch, but here, it is not always possible. On this block, in this neighborhood and with this lot it would have been a waste.

It might be nice in, say, Dallas, but it really clashes with the character of the New Orleans neighborhood. Unless it's supposed to riff off the FEMA trailer look.

Seriously, I thought it was a shipping container in another life.

And to the person who doesn't live in the South and doesn't understand being outside, when it's 86 degrees with 95 percent humidity, who wants to be outside? I don't. I live in the South, and I have lived in South Florida as well, and when that humidity wall hits, the only way I want to be outside is if I'm in a pool or the ocean, otherwise, the windows are sealed and I am under air conditioning. I do not understand how people work outside in the South in the summer, and I'm a Southerner.

One of the important design aspects of the "gaping mouth" is to allow natural light to filter deeper into the interior — a good solution.

fredbiscotti - Could not disagree with you more! I think yours may be an issue of style versus type, and not recognizing the difference between the two. This house is a variation on the shotgun house, a historical and quintessentially New Orleans *type* developed in direct response to the culture and climate of that place. (Not to mention the predominance of narrow and long lots.) Stylistically, the house responds to the era in which it was built - and why should it not???

ditto to chole!

just plain ugly!

It looks like a single wide mobile home trying to pose as a church.

It's ugly. And it looks even more glaringly awkward next to the neighboring homes.

I love it. Btw why is nobody complaining about the lack of porch at the house next door???!?!?!?!?!?
I love it plus I'm a sucker for indoor gardens.

absolutely love it! & haha, it does resemble the arizona memorial!

Being the person who said I don't live in the South, I just wanted to clarify my comment.

What I meant was, when I look at this house, my thoughts don't immediately jump to, "It would be a b*tch to sit outside because the awning doesn't hang over enough" or anything similar because my mind doesn't have that context to draw on. (I live in a cold climate.) However, once that was pointed out by architexas, it made a lot of sense to me. That's all I was trying to say.

Oh, and I do understand "the concept" of being outside. I just don't have a lot of firsthand knowledge about being outside in the South. (And I have visited New Orleans and Texas several times.)

I don't disagree with the "trailer trying to be a church" comment; I actually think it's pretty apt. I just don't find that idea to be entirely negative. If you don't like modern, you don't like modern. However, that doesn't make a modern house on a traditional street an abomination. And as was pointed out by chole, this is an adaptation of a well-established vernacular form (the shotgun house), so it's not without context for New Orleans.

This could be the home of our future. People wouldn't react so negatively if the other houses in the neighborhood were modernistic as well. Despite it's apparent high quality, it seems to stick out mainly because the contrast between old (and run-down) and new is rather jarring.

It might be ahead of its time right now, but having set the bar high, it's quite possible that more people will follow suit with similar designs making observers much less uncomfortable.

Beautiful interiors by the way. All that light...just wonderful.

who cares what it looks like. usable space, running water, shelter. i gair-awn-teeh the neighbors aren't complaining.

so unique and creative and amazing!

Did anyone bother to ask the local residents (displaced and returned) what they might actually like? After WWII, the East End of London was totally destroyed by German bombing. The powers that be decided that rather than rebuild the neighborhoods, they'd build "Cities in the Sky" and erected ugly concrete monuments to their own genius. Of course, the people who actually had to live there hated them, and some have been torn down.

This looks rather like a hip architect's idea, rather than what an actual local would want to live in. It's not just buy local, think global--it's act local.

I like this one a lot. However, I do agree with architexas' comments about the lack of a porch and the architect's inability to pay more attention to the context of the neighborhood. I feel that this is very important. But I also feel that Post-Katrina New Orleans has a new identity as a city - maybe that of a lab rat. With all the design pouring in, we might be afforded the vantage point of seeing the flaws and strengths of contemporary design much more quickly than we would in a city with fewer pressing needs.

I love this! I would wonder (for at least a few seconds) how my neighbors would react if I had one built as infill in our blighted red-brick cottage neighborhood, though.

As a former New Orleans resident, I think I can confidently say WTF!. Don't be thinking the house next door is representative of the neighborhood vernacular, it's a come-lately mess, too. Two things that are a constant in New Orleans: rain and heat. Not employing significant overhangs for sun exposed windows and a porch (yes, it's that important) is a sin.

I'd love to see these materials used in a way that pays attention to the local climate, the local culture and the local architecture. Riffing on colloquial themes (even to the extreme) is good, spitting on them, not so much.

An insult to the good name of alligators everywhere.

This "relates" to vernacular architecture only in an intellectual, architect-speak way. It looks totally out of place to anyone who doesn't write artists statements for a living.

Love the inside, but the outside is a major modern miss for me—it would've been doable to create a modern exterior that would've been a lot more "friendly" to the overall neighborhood.

Having grown up in a shotgun house in NOLA with NO porch, I'd have to agree with everything written by architexas and businessgypsy.

While I can appreciate the firm's desire to create affordable post-Katrina housing, that house looks like such an eye-sore from the outside. It might be right at home on a sandy beach somewhere, but it doesn't offer anything to help beautify the neighborhood. It's already pretty stark, how is this building going to look in 3-5 years time once the modern newness has worn off?

Those "fluorescent windows" spanning the front are just awful. They'll let in too much sun/heat in during the day and will draw too much attention (and BUGS) at night.

One can't even add character to the front of the house since there's no porch there. Mind you, this house DOES have a porch, it's just at the back of the house where it doesn't belong (for this region). That back porch, coupled with the low windows on the side of the house, practically invite burglary.

I don't see why the shotgun needed to be reinvented. Perhaps, tweaked to incorporate energy efficient elements to keep cost of living in the house low. But the basic shotgun design works and is a part of Gulf Coast history.

UGLY!

Ack! I hate it! I hate when people throw up houses in neighborhoods and it in no way ties to the look or feel of the area. Being from south Louisiana myself, it just doesn't fit. It reminds me of the people who built a "geodome" home back in the 70s. It's this horrible, big, round bubble of a house on the side of a bayou in a rural area. Doesn't fit.

What a disgrace to the city. Bring this piece of crap back to where the builder lives. We don't want that eyesore here. How could the city allow this? Unbelieveable.