St. John of the Cross Masterplan

The master plan prepared by H/S Architects for St. John of the Cross Church in Lacombe, Louisiana is comprised of 4 phases of work. The original sanctuary building is a uniquely designed structure which responds to its wooded environment and the south Louisiana climate. Phase 1 involved the addition of a new office and meeting space building to be located between the existing sanctuary and the existing multipurpose building. The new office and meeting space building, the design of which is in harmony with the architectural language of the existing sanctuary building, houses the new facilities for administration and CCD.

Phase 2 involves the sensitive addition to the existing sanctuary for seating expansion as well as a rear covered drop-off area. This expansion will add 150-person seating capacity to the existing church. Also in Phase 2, a new daily mass chapel is planned to be situated amongst a thick growth of existing pine trees. Phase 3 involves the addition of new educational facilities to the eastern portion of the site. The initial portion of this phase will include 4 classrooms, school administration and toilet rooms. Phase 4 includes a new 1,000-person sanctuary located in the northern portion of the site amongst the existing pine forest. The existing sanctuary will then be converted into a parish hall facility.

Zemurray Park Master Plan

The Zemurray Park Master Plan was conceived as a citizen-driven master planning initiative to modernize the City of Hammond’s largest public park. The 33-acre park has seen very little change since its initial development in 1950’s. The resulting Master Plan charts a new vision and roadmap for the redevelopment of Zemurray Park for the next 20 years.

The planning method was designed to include citizen input as a crucial aspect of the planning. Holding a week-long planning charette, the planning team, invited special interest groups, citizens, City Administration, and City staff all engaged in the planning and design brainstorming sessions.

The planning team adopted the motto, “Make No Little Plans.” for the Charette week. Referring to it throughout the week, the team used it to inspire themselves, as well as community leaders and citizens as a call to dream big and bold ideas. This quote mas made famous by famed Chicago Architect and Urban Planner, Daniel Burnham in 1907.

The planners were asked to include a Social Media strategy into the master planning effort. Through social media platforms, citizens were able to follow the planning effort, see meeting schedules and dates, post comments and express ideas or concerns.

The final Master Plan is the consensus of several public meetings and recommendations from the Steering Committee. The Master Plan recommendations span from the siting of major civic buildings in the park to the elimination of vehicular access within the park boundaries. The new Master Plan vision focuses on park accessibility, new and improved amenities, convenient parking along with enhanced park security.

The Master Plan is a culmination of months of planning, public meetings, plan revisions and development and policy strategies, and its recommendations are a bold new vision for what the planners call “Hammond’s City Park,” a Park for all of Hammond’s citizens.

Zemurray Park Master Plan Final Report

Avoyelles Public Charter School Master Plan

Chappapeela Sports Park Master Plan

The project consists of multiple buildings for a newly developing multi-discipline 80-acre sports and recreation complex. A double gymnasium with administration areas, concessions and classroom facilities are situated at the entry to the complex, establishing an axis through the development. Multiple concessions and restroom combination facilities are designed to create visual way-finding cues along this access. A maintenance building was designed to accommodate all of the grounds-keeping needs.

St. Mark Catholic Church Master Plan

The building initiatives or building phasing for construction is directly related to the amount of funds available to the parish in any given time. The following is a broad-brush outline of building initiatives based on feedback given to us from the Building Committee on what their priorities for construction would be.

• Purchase new Rectory (completed 2005)
• Move out of existing Rectory
• Construct meeting room additions, kitchen additions and storage additions to Activity Center
• Demolish Waguespack conference room
• Construct new administration building
• Tie-in city water and sewer system
• Provide restroom access from existing sanctuary to new restrooms in administration building
• Construct new additions and renovate existing PSR building
• Move into administration and PSR building
• Demolish existing rectory
• Construct new parking areas and promenade areas, including walkway and walkway covers
• Construct new sanctuary
• Tie into and renovate existing sanctuary to new gathering space
• Renovate existing chapel 

Franklinton Church Masterplan

H/S Architects worked with the Franklinton First Baptist Church to prepare a 10-year master plan for their aging campus. The H/S Team analyzed their existing facilities and helped them to determine which facilities had exceeded their life cycle & functionality. After this analysis, it was determined that the existing church education building and administration buildings should be removed to make room for new facilities. Although the church had acquired ample amount of land, the existing facilities were densely packed within a small portion of this land. Because of this, there were several opportunities to grow, but the challenge of phasing this growth became a formidable one. H/S prepared a final master plan that was broken down into 7 manageable incremental phases. The essence or “big idea” of the master plan focused on a new sanctuary, which was centered on Lee Street to connect and engage the church with their historic downtown. The design team also assisted the church in negotiations with the city administration to plan for a future dedication of two intersecting streets, which pass through their campus, to be restricted to pedestrian use only. This move would greatly contribute to the unification of their existing property, which exists on 4 city blocks, into one contiguous campus.

West Feliciana Parish Governmental Center Masterplan

Holly and Smith Architects were commissioned by the West Feliciana Parish Police Jury to prepare a feasibility study for a new governmental complex. Through several masterplans and site studies, it was found that a combination of renovated structures and new buildings to be the most feasible for the project. The West Feliciana Governmental Center includes a 28,000 sq. ft. Annex connected to the existing West Feliciana Parish Courthouse through proximity and ground scape. The Annex and Court House serves as the primary parish facilities for the 20th Judicial Court System, Sheriff, Clerk of Court, and Tax Assessor public agencies. The courtrooms incorporate state-of-the-art sound systems and recording capabilities on the third floor overlooking the historic district of St. Francisville, and the Sheriff’s headquarters is situated to serve Prisoner holding and transportation through an underground Sallyport. All public offices open into a three-story atrium including a winding monumental stair through the spaces. This portion of the facility was simply designed to honor the existing historic courthouse and its monumental copper dome. Insensitive renovations throughout the past century have plagued the existing courthouse. The project includes renovations to preserve the existing facility and to restore the interior and exterior features to original conditions, as well as incorporate modern mechanical, electrical, and acoustical systems concealed from view. The newly constructed Annex through its design pays respect to the existing Court House and surrounding context.

University of New Orleans International Building

Holly and Smith Architects were commissioned to create a marketing package for the projected University of New Orleans (UNO) International Building whose main purpose would be to house all of the universities’ foreign studies programs while providing UNO with a multipurpose event and gallery space. The design of the building also incorporates a strong visual and physical connection between The Cove, an adjacent student dining center. The main concept of the building design was to create a hybrid architecture that utilized and adapted aspects of architecture indigenous to the regions of the foreign studies programs that were represented at UNO whilst generating a proper climactic and architectural response to the city of New Orleans. Other guiding principles that also contributed to the overall design were the desire by the university for an identifiable nexus of student activity on the western edge of campus and the fostering of an open, easily accessible building where international and domestic students alike could gather and comingle.

Tom Benson Jesuit Center

The need for a central Jesuit center on the campus was outlined to include departments under the Office of Mission and Ministry and other service-learning departments. It was determined that the site of the old library building on the main campus would be the appropriate location to centralize these departments and become the new Jesuit center. The departments outlined in the Tom Benson Jesuit Center include those under the Office of Mission and Ministry, offices for the Holy Name of Jesus Parish, Jesuit Provincial Offices, and the Office of Service Learning. Additional spaces to be included are flexible meeting spaces such as large meeting rooms to hold lectures, conferences, and retreats; an Interfaith Center for multi-faith practices and worship; and the St. Ignatius Chapel: a worship space to embody a welcoming spirit for all faiths to engage in communal prayer. The Tom Benson Jesuit Center will be a central location for university students, faculty and staff, and the New Orleans and Jesuit Communities to explore the mission of the university and the Jesuit Identity of Loyola University New Orleans.

St. Andrew’s Village Phase 1

St. Andrew’s Village will be a faith-based, mixed-use Village community where both adults with developmental disabilities and non-disabled individual scan live, work, worship, and socialize throughout their lifelong journey. Born of a partnership between parents and community members to provide for adults with special needs, St. Andrew’s will be the first community of its kind in the state of Louisiana.

St. Andrew’s Village Masterplan

St. Andrew’s Village will be a faith-based, mixed-use Village community where both adults with developmental disabilities and non-disabled individualscan live, work, worship, and socialize throughout their lifelong journey. Born of a partnership between parents and community members to provide for adultswith special needs, St. Andrew’s will be the first community of its kind in the state of Louisiana.

Southeastern Louisiana University Masterplan

The approach to the Southeastern Louisiana University Master Plan embraces the concepts of Richard Dober who said, “Ideally, every university should have its own physical image, and amalgam of buildings and landscapes that define and celebrate a sense of place; communicate the institutions purpose, presence and domain; generate an image charged with symbolism and graced by history.” The framework of the Master Plan is intended to support orderly growth with purpose to each growth step during the process. The Master Plan includes the location of new facilities, additions to existing facilities and improvements to the existing conditions on site. It redefines pedestrian and vehicular circulation and attempts, through the use of architectural and landscape elements, to enhance the overall pedestrian experience. The plan is organized as a series of districts. The districts were analyzed on various levels, including layout and building mass, architectural style, circulation and landscape content. Design guidelines were developed that establish the groundwork and outline the elements by which all circulation, buildings, hardscape and landscape work will be defined.

Southeastern Louisiana University Masterplan

Saint Scholastica Academy Masterplan

The site master plan committee for St. Scholastica Academy embarked upon a process to redevelop a 100-year old campus. The master planning process was initiated with a physical analysis that defined goals and established existing conditions resulting in definitions of key design issues. The analysis included a review of vehicular circulation, campus geometry, visual environment, landscaping as well as specific space needs including projections for the future. With the physical analysis in hand, community interaction was developed which included meetings with stakeholders in the master plan. This included local government, community/neighbors, faculty, staff, students and other interested parties. The result of these workshops manifested itself in a 5-phase master plan implementation proposal which included the proposed approaches to parking, circulation, campus image to the community, new construction, redevelopment of existing facilities, the future image of the campus, cost projections as well as documentation of the status of the campus at the completion of each phase.

Ponchatoula Area Recreational District

The Ponchatoula Area Recreation District No. 1 recreational facility (P.A.R.D. No. 1) is a 68-acre master plan developed as a public amenity by the City of Ponchatoula. The facility will comprise of four (4) major league baseball fields, three (3) little league fields, one (1) softball field, four to five (4-5) football / soccer fields, full gymnasium, two (2) concession stands, jogging trail, event gazebos, pond and a viewing hill. The unifying concepts of the facility are strong axially, connecting both visual and pedestrian. The diamond shape arrangement of the concession buildings and gazebos respond not only the baseball diamonds / quadraplex layout but also serves to enliven the spaces with dynamic visual perspectives.

Our Lady Of Mount Carmel Masterplan

The congregation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in historic St. Francisville Louisiana was looking to expand their facilities to accommodate growing needs. A significant challenge was presented in the form of the original one room church’s small and steeply sloped river view site. H/S Architects prepared multiple masterplan options that showed unique ways to accommodate the additional requirements of an educational facility, choir space, nursery, gathering hall and additional parking. The scheme ultimately selected retained all existing structures and introduced an arcing retaining wall and new 12,000 sq. ft. split level building. A large plaza allowed for weddings or other outdoor events to take advantage of spectacular views while being closely connected to all other of the churches amenities.

New Orleans State Office Building

A new 12 story office building to house various state agencies. The principals of Regional Modernism are paramount to the concept of the proposed design.Solar orientation and climatic responses have been proposed that address this rationale. A long narrow floor plate oriented due south will utilize a double ventilated facade “scrim” to minimize solar heat gain and maximize views. The “scrim” is a unitized curtain wall surface of fritted glass with varying transparencies to achieve these goals. The remaining opaque facade treatments are clad with a terracotta rain-screen. H/S has engaged the services of ARUPNew York’s facade engineering group for aid in the design and performance of the double ventilated facade.

Macaluso Office Complex

The project was born out of a desire of the owners to create a live-work environment. Located within the historic downtown Hammond, La., the building references the language of art deco but teeters on the verge of modern. The ground level would house the owners Professional Law Firm, a small art gallery, and an outdoor sculpture garden while the second and third levels house the living spaces. Roof top terraces are incorporated on the second and third levels.

Independence Community Pavilion

The new open air pavilion for the Town of Independence is set to host Farmers Markets and various other local events for the town. Set alongside the railroad tracks in Historic Downtown Independence, the pavilion respects the historic fit of the area and compliments the corbelled brick structure of the police station opposite the site. The layout of the plan consists of 10×10 modular stalls within the exposed structure pavilion as well as 2 brick enclosed restrooms.

Holy Ghost Catholic Church Master Plan

Holy Ghost Church embarked upon a process to establish a new sanctuary facility. The key individuals involved in the decision to move forward with this project decided that it was time to update their on going master plan indicating the plans for the immediate future facilities. Holly & Smith Architects have been involved in the development and updating of the master plan since 1981. This portion of the master plan included a new church sanctuary as well as additions to the school. There presently is an on going master plan process updating as well as upgrading future proposed facilities within the next 5 to 10 years.

Green Park at River Highlands

The Green Park is planned to be the first sustainable commercial development in the North Shore region. The development is planned in 3 phases and includes 17 buildings averaging 4000 sq. ft. each. The buildings will utilize sustainable strategies which will include daylight harvesting, proper solar orientation, exterior shading devices, solar power supplement, rain water collection and recycled material selection. The buildings will pursue LEED certification.

Downtown Hammond Masterplan

The Hammond Downtown Development District commissioned Holly & Smith Architects in association with Design Consortium to provide a master plan in an attempt to revitalize Historic Downtown Hammond. The master plan provided in-depth analysis of the existing conditions within the Historic District and developed strategies for dealing with problems identified in the analysis. The plan addressed the vacant buildings, parking issues, pedestrian circulation, street scape and urban landscaping and established grand ideas to help promote the revitalization for the downtown district. These big ideas were designated as generators which were intended to act as a catalyst to begin revitalization by individual property owners. The master plan acted as a guidepost to the revitalization and took an area that has 70% of the buildings vacant to an area which is almost completely renovated and occupied all of the downtown buildings. The only remaining buildings are held up in litigation and are slated for revitalization in the near future. The plan also encouraged the landscaping improvements to the parking areas along the railroad tracks and helped encourage the Neill Corporation, Chamber of Commerce and development of the artists apartments in the old Eastside school.

Albany Foundry

The Albany Foundry project is a renovation to an existing 11,085 sq. ft. industrial foundry which has stood vacant for years in Albany Louisiana. The existing structure is comprised of 8” thick cast-in place exterior walls with a column and beam structure within. The renovation design embraces the industrial nature of the existing building and its preceding use. Interior structural elements will be left exposed. The new design will subdivide the building into three 3000 sq. ft. tenant spaces. A pharmacy will take up one bay leaving the other two for future unknown tenants. The tenant storefronts are held away from the existing facade to allow for an under-roof open air arcade allowing covered entry to each of the tenants. Also an iconic circular tower element will be added to the corner of the building accentuating the curvature of the existing building corner.