Tall & Urban News

Shuttered New Orleans Landmark Tower to be Fully Renovated

New Orleans Photoshop
New Orleans Photoshop
01 May 2019 | New Orleans, United States

Construction has started on the complete transformation of a one of the most prominent buildings on the New Orleans skyline into a Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences.

Rising 33 stories at the foot of Canal Street, the former World Trade Center tower at 2 Canal Street sits on two acres (0.8 hectares) of Mississippi River waterfront. The building was designed by celebrated Modernist architect Edward Durell Stone, whose noteworthy buildings include New York’s GM Building, Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art.

It was completed in 1968 as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the city of New Orleans. It was an ambitious skyscraper at the time – its cruciform shape aligned to the four points of a compass and its New Formalist style creating a monumental presence on the New Orleans skyline. The rotating rooftop provided decades of entertainment and the best vantage points in the city.

“Two Canal” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but has sat mostly empty since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

Most of the money being used to finance the project is from overseas, said Dick Friedman, CEO of Carpenter & Co., the project’s Boston-based master developer who is also a director of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. He described this as a remarkable accomplishment that represented confidence in the city’s leadership. “We will build this 50-year-old building for the next 100 years,” he said.

The Four Seasons New Orleans will be the first Four Seasons hotel property in New Orleans, the first hotel-serviced residential building, and the first luxury high-rise condominium in the city. At 341 hotel rooms and 81 residences, it will be one of the largest Four Seasons properties when it opens in 2020.

For more on this story visit HospitalityNet and The New Orleans Advocate.