Explore this home and two other outstanding examples of New Orleans’ Mid-Century Modern design at the 2026 MidMod Home Tour & Happy Hour on June 17 from 5-8 p.m.
WHEN YOU KNOW, you know.
After looking at what she estimated to be 70 houses, Suzanne Moak pulled into the driveway in front of the home Arthur Q. Davis designed in 1960 and knew. It was one of the very first houses built in Lakewood North.
“The abundance of windows, the deep green from the oak tree, it just felt so right. I felt relieved,” Moak said.
It was 2021, and Moak, a hair and wardrobe stylist and costume designer, had just moved to New Orleans from her native Jackson, Mississippi, to pursue a business opportunity.
“I had a friend in Jackson with a house with lots of glass and an open floor plan, and I always loved it. This house really struck a chord.”
The nearly 4,700-square-foot house sits on a broad, shaded lot behind a deep lawn. It is accessed via a slate walkway that winds across the lawn under a mature oak tree. Much of the expanse of glass picture windows at the front of the home is obscured from view by towering Chinese fan palms.
The home’s 199-foot-deep lot backs up to the 17th Street Canal. The house flooded following the failure of the federal levees after Hurricane Katrina and was later renovated by a prior homeowner. Today, it overlooks a verdant yard and the levee beyond on two sides.
The home’s living area includes a broad formal dining room that spans most of the front of the house, overlooking the front garden and lawn through plate-glass windows. It has a natural-wood beadboard ceiling that vaults from 9 feet just above the windows to 19 feet at the home’s centerline.
Opposite a wall with a cased opening is a deeper, more casual open living, dining and breakfast area, where the ceiling slopes from the 19-foot apex down to meet the plate-glass windows and doors at 9 feet. On the northern side of the structure, a wing extends to the rear, forming an L-shape; the upper floor features a balcony. The home’s generous guest and primary suites on the first floor have plate-glass doors that open to the verdant rear garden, which Moak has planted with a weeping willow tree, lush tropical foliage, walking iris and fruit trees.
Moak, an inveterate thrifter and DIYer with an eye for good design, has furnished her midcentury-modern jewel with contemporary art and an abundance of saturated color. She intends to convert the second-floor bedrooms into workspace to support her costume design business and her membership in the Merry Antoinettes and Box of Wine Carnival walking krewes, as well as the Ladies of Leisure Kaftan Klub.
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
