When T. Sellers Meric died in 2023 at age 95, his large, extended family was uncertain what would become of the architectural jewel, his pride and joy, which served as the family home.
With three young children, and a lifetime of happy memories built around the home, Hartley Meric Crunk and her husband, Blair, bought the house, its original iconic modernist furniture and a substantial part of her family’s history from her grandfather’s estate. Hartley and Blair, an attorney with Entergy, recently moved their family into the house.
The only physical change the couple has made to the home is the removal of the carpet in the living and dining rooms and upstairs spaces, replacing them with five-inch-wide walnut hardwood planks.
In 1970, the American Institute of Architects bestowed upon Cimini & Meric & Associates, a celebrated New Orleans architectural firm, the Honor Award for the masterful, stylish feat that partner Sellers Meric accomplished in 1965 when he designed and built his large family’s home on a 40-by-200-foot lot in a rural area that ultimately became the Lakewood South subdivision.
The long, narrow lot backed up the 17th Street Canal that divides Jefferson and Orleans parishes. At the time, cows from a nearby dairy farm grazed on the levee behind the lot.
“It was the only lot available on the levee at that time, and my dad wanted us to live on the levee,” said Thomas S. Meric, Jr., an architect (Duplantier & Meric), father of Hartley Crunk, and son of the late Sellers Meric. “It meant one less neighbor.”
A brief submitted to the AIA for consideration for the award cited a unique challenge. “The basic problem was to design a large residence on an extremely narrow site for a family of seven with three girls: 8, 12, and 14; a boy, 11; and a widowed in-law.”
Local building codes requiring five feet of clearance between property lines on either side of the lot decreased the allowable building space to 30 feet in width.
To circumvent what the award submission called a “box car” appearance, Sellers Meric designed his family’s home in three two-story units with sleeping and family activity on the second floor and living and entertaining on the ground floor.”
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
The contemporary home was constructed on a concrete slab with wood framing on steel columns. It was sided with cedar plywood topped with two-by-two cedar battens six inches apart. The interior space was 3,800 square feet with an additional 1,500 square feet of covered outdoor space. An abundance of windows on the home’s northern and southern sides allowed sunlight to bathe the home’s interior. The floors were either carpeted or old brick.
“I remember this was the entertaining house, where the family gathered,” said Hartley Crunk, a banker with Hancock Whitney. “It’s a major entertaining space that doesn’t get so blazing hot because of the awnings and various outdoor seating areas.”
Save for the living room, where the ceiling rises 18 feet to meet the roofline dramatically, the home has 8-foot ceilings.
“He took the things he had and built around them,” Thomas Meric said of his father. “The 8-foot doors precisely fit into the 8-foot ceilings. There are no baseboards. The lack of unnecessary trim and having all the doors rise to the ceiling makes the ceiling feel higher.
“My dad pulled off the design without a single construction variance,” said Thomas Meric. “The house was built precisely to the lot. The house is very, very solid. My dad and I rode out Hurricane Betsy under the steel staircase.
“Upstairs, there were three ‘pods.’ One, for the three girls with a central shared closet and a shared bath. The second pod was a large den and a room for me.”
Thomas Meric shared a bathroom with his widowed grandmother, whose bedroom was opposite the shared bath. A steel bridge overlooking the open living room led to the third pod, the home’s primary suite, which spanned the width of the property. It included a private balcony overlooking the 15-by-30-foot swimming pool, the rear garden, Sellers Meric’s studio-workshop and the levee beyond.
Eventually, an upstairs deck, part of the second upstairs “pod,” was enclosed to expand the den, and a circular fireplace with a conical hood was added.
In 2005, flooding following Hurricane Katrina filled the house with 9 feet of fetid water that stood for weeks. The first floor sustained much damage. Sellers Meric immediately began to restore the home, salvaging much of the original old brick floors. Years earlier he enclosed two patios on either side of the dining room. He built a simple, elegant walnut bar on one side to replace a bar made of white Carrara marble that was damaged in the flood and left the other side open as an indoor nursery space for his wife Anne’s orchid collection.
The original dining table, a six-petaled steel star topped with glass, remained in place as its base was poured into the home’s foundation, as was that of an adjacent sideboard. The brass and Austrian crystal Maria Theresa chandelier over the dining table was restored, as were the enviable furnishings from legendary architects and interior designers, such as Mies van de Rohe, Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, Eero Saarinen, Warren Platner, and Sellers Meric himself.
In 2016, Sellers Meric told New Orleans Magazine that the home was built “with lots of blood, sweat, and tears, the first house in Lakewood South occupied with power after Katrina.”
The home’s sleek kitchen features Sierra White granite countertops and a backsplash that rises to meet the hardwood cabinets, the uppers of which have glass fronts.
“My mother kept the dishes in there arranged impeccably,” said Thomas Meric, playfully ribbing his daughter while eyeballing the jumble of children’s sippy cups and assorted cookbooks in his daughter’s cabinets. She, in turn, shot her father a side-eye glare.
A covered terrace leading to a verdant garden is located just outside the breakfast area. In addition to a walk-in pantry, a door from the kitchen leads to a room where all the home’s mechanical equipment is housed.
“Sellers thought of everything,” Hartley Crunk said. “He even embedded the ductwork under the slab.”
Don’t miss the 2025 MidMod Home Tour and Happy Hour! Explore beautifully preserved Mid-Century homes, sip on a cool cocktail or beer, and mingle with fellow design lovers and preservation enthusiasts. Whether you’re a longtime modernist or just love a great house tour, this event is not to be missed.
