See this and other Garden District landscapes filled with custom-designed, larger-than-life art installations during PRC’s Holiday Home Tour presented by McEnery Residential on Dec. 11-12.
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Dugan Westfeldt II are the fifth generation of their family to call 2340 Prytania St. home. The house was built in 1838 by Thomas Toby, a wheelwright and merchant who came to New Orleans from Philadelphia.
After Toby died in 1849, his family remained in the home until 1858, according to a 2019 Preservation in Print article. When they could no longer afford to keep it, the house was sold in a sheriff’s sale to Thomas Smithfield Dugan. His only surviving child, Marie Louise Dugan Westfeldt, inherited it in 1907, and the property has remained in the Westfeldt family ever since.
The current owners have lived there since 1984. Over the years, they’ve done several renovations, both inside and out. The house is surrounded by a lush garden that unfolds in a series of serene outdoor spaces. A front wooden gate opens onto a brick-framed marble path leading to a fountain, which serves as a bubbling focal point in front of the house. The path curves toward the side yard, which features a broad lawn framed by a series of raised brick garden beds recently planted with rose bushes by Fransen Mills Landscape Architects. The perimeter of the lawn is shaded by a lush wall of greenery in a mix of trees, camellias, palms and tropical plants.
The backyard is a space made for entertaining, with a brick patio, swimming pool, outdoor chimney and conversation space.
Past the swimming pool and the driveway, the shaded border garden holds a nearly hidden gate that connects 2340 Prytania St. to the house next door at 2324 Prytania St. That home is owned by the Westfeldts’ daughter, Shelby, and her husband, John Mills, owner of Fransen Mills Landscape Architects. The garden gate allows the Mills’ children to play between the two yards and easily visit their grandparents.
The Mills’ home sits back from the street, fronted by a lawn framed by formal boxwood borders and topiaries. A brick path down the side of the house leads to a courtyard with a fountain.
Photos by Charles E. Leche
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The Artist: Nadia Ramadan
Nadia Ramadan, an artist and interior designer, is not one to stick to a single project.
“I tend to work on a huge variety of projects at once,” she said, adding that her clients’ ideas inspire her.
She’s painted murals, created house floats, built furniture, made costumes and more using media dictated by the artwork she’s creating.
Ramadan, whose interior design projects have been featured in New Orleans Magazine, credits her mother as the reason she “caught the bug for interior design and art,” she said.
Born in the United States, Ramadan and her family moved to Libya when she was a young child. While living there, her mom designed and painted their entire house, she said, and recruited her to help with decisions in the remodeling. “My mom has always done art projects with me from a young age. We were always making papier-mâché or painting etc.,” Ramadan said.
When she was 18, Ramadan moved back to the United States to study interior architecture at the University of Wisconsin. “It was an intense program and really taught me how to manage,” she said.
After completing her degree, she moved to New Orleans where her husband Tariq already had an established career.
Ramadan worked with the late interior designer Chet Pourciau, who operated Chet Pourciau Design on Magazine Street. She now is the sole proprietor of ND Studio, her own interior design business.
Because she is an interior designer, “everything I do is influenced by the architecture,” she said when asked if the city’s historic houses serve as an inspiration. The city’s most plentiful housing type, the shotgun, also is showcased in Ramadan’s fanciful headpieces. They can be seen through her Instagram account @nadia_ndstudio.
Ramadan also has hand-painted New Orleans homes onto fabric for the one-of-a-kind chairs she’s donated for the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s annual gala, CHAIRish the Children.
Her design for the PRC’s Art & Garden Holiday Home Tour will focus on how “cultures have impacted/shaped/influenced our city,” she said of what visitors will see in the large Prytania Street side yard where her artwork will be displayed
“I also want to show how New Orleans’ waters have made such an impact on our way of life — from Vietnamese fishing to the import and export of so many goods,” she added.
The PRC’s 46th annual Holiday Home Tour presented by McEnery Residential is back with a fresh new format for this year!
Dec. 11-12
VIDEO SERIES and
ART & GARDEN TOUR
Learn more & buy your tickets today!
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