It was one of those “Oh, what the hell?” decisions.
It took the vision of a soothsayer and either the fearlessness of a honey badger or the foolishness of the court jester, but on a whim, Marty Brantley and Michael Hollis decided they could take Albert Ledner’s former home and somehow make it their own.
Accustomed to living in traditional homes with traditional furnishings, the couple decided their Lakeview house was simply too large. They considered a lot on Bellaire Drive in Lakewood South, on which they would build a custom home with a modern aesthetic.
“Something fresh, clean,” said Brantley, an entrepreneur, former Realtor and architecture buff with a flair for interior design.
“Michael had gone to look at the lot, saw the for sale sign on a house two doors down, and, on a whim, called (Realtor) Warren Backer, a friend of ours, and asked to see the house,” Brantley recalled. “He came home and said, ‘I think you could do something with this house.’”
Ledner, an architect, was a protégé and student of Frank Lloyd Wright. He was known for designing winged buildings, soaring residences and pleated roofs. He designed 40 or so houses in the New Orleans area, including the Sunkel Residence (aka the Ashtray House) on Park Island, as well as the original structures that house two of New York City’s iconic hotels, The Dream and The Maritime.
Ledner’s style was known as organic modern. He designed the house on a double lot on Bellaire Drive as two six-petaled stars bridged by a rhomboid-shaped foyer for his family in 1955. He lived there until his death at age 93 in 2017.
A 12-gabled pleated roof extends over the harp-shaped buttresses that hold it aloft. Ledner’s singular vision for the house generously employed his playful approach to his craft, which was defined by the flow of spatial energy he incorporated into all his designs. He also customized the home down to designing and crafting its light fixtures.
One enters the house through a wooden door in the shape of a pair of cojoined flying buttresses, if there were such a thing. Ledner incorporated mirrored panels into the interior facets of skylights in the foyer to further magnify the light and enliven a prismatic wall adornment of blue, green and orange glass mosaic tiles.
From there, the foyer, which includes an exotic interior garden, fans out into front and rear wings, each in a star shape. To the right are the private spaces. To the left are the kitchen, dining and living areas. Vaulted ceilings rise and fall repeatedly throughout the house from 8 to 15 feet. An abundance of wood paneling, much of it in a striped design, covered many of the walls. Numerous clerestory windows, triangular transoms, large skylights and sliding glass doors blur the lines between inside and out.
In a 2008 Times-Picayune article, Ledner’s daughter, Catherine, described the home as “a house where no two walls were parallel and no ceilings flat.”
A diagonal path through the residential portion of the house led back outside to a patio garden and studio, which Ledner designed and added on in 1961. The addition originally housed the Ledners’ three children’s playroom underneath and his studio above, accessible via a Japanese-style glass float spiral staircase.
Flooding following Hurricane Katrina left the glass walls of the upper floor unsalvageable. It was removed, sending Ledner’s studio downstairs. The space frame construction of pre-cast concrete and post-tensioned steel that Ledner designed to support the studio remained, as did the geometric pattern of hollow concrete circles set within the structure’s squared trusses.
Brantley and Hollis, a benefits consultant with HUB International, closed on the house at the end of 2018.
Brantley said he was only comfortable making changes after speaking with Wayne Troyer, the innovative New Orleans architect acclaimed for his talent preserving historic buildings and designing modern structures, including the celebrated Hotel Peter and Paul.
“It turned out Wayne had been an acolyte to Albert Ledner, and he knew the house well,” Brantley said. “This made it feel like serendipity. The place was so captivating. So, we said, ‘Let’s give it the old college try. It could be a fun project.’ Although I wasn’t looking for a project.”
Troyer and his associates, Tracie Ashe and Julie Babin at Studio WTA (becoming Practis in late 2023), undertook the Herculean task of evolving Ledner’s very singular house.
“Wayne and his team completed the architectural plans … that stay true to Ledner’s original design while updating it for today’s lifestyle,” Brantley said.
Following Troyer’s death in 2019 at 66, Ashe and Babin continued work on the project. Edifice Builders served as the general contractor. Following two-and-a-half years of demolition and construction, Brantley and Hollis moved into the home in the summer of 2022.
Ledner’s studio was connected to the rest of the home via a sloped concrete walkway to become the primary suite. Large format Italian travertine tile covers the floors of the space and continues outdoors through a moveable glass wall to form the deck of the swimming pool and spa, which were designed by Mullin Landscape, also responsible for the home’s tropical gardens.
“It was a nightmare to get the permits to build a swimming pool on land running up to the levee,” Hollis said. “We had to go through the city, the Sewerage & Water Board, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Levee Board to increase subsurface drainage.”
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
The Italian travertine continues throughout the primary space, encompassing a waterpark-style bathroom with a soaking tub and an enormous glass-walled shower overlooking the garden. The flooring continues through a generous walk-in closet and dressing area. Sparse furnishings seem to float within the space under Ledner’s geometric pattern of hollow concrete circles set within the structure’s squared trusses into which artful lighting has been incorporated to form a visually stimulating ceiling.
The roof of the primary suite has been fitted with a solar system that will power the space and the home’s major appliances in the event of a power outage. The house is now 3,200 square feet.
Two of the home’s four bedrooms have been converted into home offices for Hollis and Brantley. The extensive paneling throughout the house has been removed in favor of pale walls that contrast dramatically with the remaining warm-toned woodwork. The home’s cork flooring has been replaced with poured white epoxy. The foyer was opened to flow into the living area. A butler’s pantry was incorporated next to the kitchen.
Brantley chose the spherical light fixtures in the home’s foyer, dining room, and kitchen and commissioned a curved custom-designed that mirrors the angle of the central brick wall and fireplace in the living room.
Artwork throughout the home was acquired while traveling abroad or is the work of artists from Brantley’s native Mississippi.
A maquette statuette of “Thalia” by New Orleans sculptor Kim Bernadas is a highlight in the living room. The Hollis family sponsored the full-sized work, which can be found in the garden outside the Jefferson Performing Arts Center, home to the Sen. Ken Hollis Theater, named for Michael Hollis’ father.
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.
