What Is New Orleans Created From French And Roman Grid

New Orleans is home to countless amounts of historical architecture. The city has many historical districts and landmark buildings. This is more than any other city in the United States. New Orleans has a diversity of architectural styles and types of buildings. New Orleans was founded by the French, ruled for 40 years by the Spanish and then bought by the United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The French and the Spanish greatly influenced the Architecture in New Orleans. Both cultures were influenced by Greek and Roman architecture. This is why New Orleans has a lot of Greek and Roman architecture throughout. The New Orleans grid system was designed from the Roman grid systems. This grid system is still used till this day. Also, many

The system was modeled after the Ancient Regime in France, which was modeled after the Romans. The grid is a geometric 14 block grid with a town square and a main avenue that ran directly threw the city. This grid is now known as the French Quarter. The Romans embraced the Greek gridded plans and had added new dimensions to the idea of a grid. This is mainly the north/south and east/west axial roads. “The Roman grid is characterized by a nearly perfectly orthogonal layout of streets, all crossing each other at right angles, and by the presence of two main streets, set at right angles from each other and called the cardo and the decumanus,” (Ancient). Rome is one of the World’s greatest, and first, urban environments that required a lot of planning. Giambattista Nolli’s Plan of Rome in 1748, was the most accurate map of Rome at the time. This composed of twelve copper plates engravings and took a total of twelve years to survey. Rome used major landmarks and monuments to connect their grid. This is similar to how the St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson square is the center of the grid for New Orleans. Both can still be seen to this day. In the 1800’s the surrounding suburbs were

One common style is the Greek revival house. This style was popular around the 1820’s-1860’s. This was a time when architecture and the arts of the classical world were symbols of democracy. The Greek key appears quit often in this architecture design. New Orleans had also adapted the pediment trim around the windows or doors and full height porches with classical round columns or boxed piers. Many of the columns found on these houses were ionic. This gave the house a more delicate appearance. The Greeks had two major columns the Doric and Ionic column. The Doric column is the earliest classical order of architecture dating back to the late seventh century BCE. The Doric column is considered to be simple, wide, and rest directly on the temple without a base. This column is found on the Parthenon. The Ionic column is known for being graceful. The proportions are slenderer and more elegant than the Doric column. The column can be found in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The Ionic order is used more than the Doric order because of its elegance, which is why you will see much more of the columns in New Orleans and all over the world. On the Greek revival the primary cladding is stucco or wood. These buildings would have scored these materials to look more like stone blocks which was the look the Greeks had. These would also be painted in two colors to make them resemble the classical masonry. The