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Mia Kaplan Studio // MKS

@miakaplanstudio

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Architectural Design and Historic Preservation Services across Louisiana and Texas.

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Checking out some historic piece-sur-piece structures in northern Louisiana, and a more recent build (designed by Eddie Cazayoux, FAIA) that harmonizes with the climate and native landscape. by @miakaplanstudio

Looking forward to getting the team together again in October to complete a historic structure report and accessibility plan for Mr. Charlie National Landmark (first two pics), the first mobile off-shore rig circa 1954, that is now a museum @rigmuseum and training facility in Morgan City for people who will be working off-shore. In the meantime, a deeper love and appreciation for rig structures and sunrises in Venice, LA. by @miakaplanstudio

Good Bones. 👻🖤 by @miakaplanstudio

Things are shaping up! Pre-pour check with Trevor @maraisconsultants . Lovely work by GC Miller and Associates. by @miakaplanstudio

You might see us wandering around Eunice, LA in the coming months taking photos and drawing on clipboards. MKS will be surveying approximately 125 structures, and preparing a National Register nomination for the Downtown Eunice Cajun Heritage Commercial District. We’ll be working with the City of Eunice, Acadiana Planning Commission, and the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation’s State Historic Preservation Office. Please share your favorite lunch spots there if you have em. ❤️ by @miakaplanstudio

New project in Covington. ❤️. “Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! this our fathers did for us." For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, or in its gold. Its glory is in its Age.”

― John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849 by @miakaplanstudio

The goal wasn’t to erase its history but to give it a future.

Work that matters. by @miakaplanstudio

Countdown to construction for this wonderful project for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. Loved working with this team and am looking forward to seeing shovels in the ground soon.

Coushatta Tribe Educational Building | Elton, LA

This project includes a new educational building for the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. The building will house administrative offices, a tech lab, classrooms, a commercial kitchen, a break room, storage, and multipurpose rooms. An exterior talking circle area will be located adjacent to and east of the building.

Design Architect: Full Circle Indigenous Planning + Design

Architect of Record: Nelson Worldwide

Local Architect: Mia Kaplan Studio (MKS)

Landscape Architect: Dana Brown & Associates

MEPF Engineering: Windward

Structural Engineer: Marais Consultants

Civil Engineer: Qk4, Inc

Food Service: Maynan Consulting, LLC

(Rendering by Full Circle IP+D) by @miakaplanstudio

Our nomination of West End Lake Shore Park in New Orleans was completed earlier this year and was submitted, but did not make it to the state review committee. The nomination wasn’t tabled because the site is ineligible, but because there was concern from public officials about how being listed on the national register might limit planned developments in the area. This is an important conversation for a number of reasons. But what stays with me is a core belief that preservation should not stop progress, but facilitate a more respectful and sustainable way to move forward. I hope to see the Darlington Prismatic Fountain, built in 1915, pictured here, restored to the marvel it once was.

Read more about the West End Lakeshore Park nomination here: https://miakaplan.com/#/west-end-lake-shore-park-national-register-nomination/

Image credit: The Historic New Orleans Collection. by @miakaplanstudio

Say it with cardboard. 💙 by @miakaplanstudio

Lincoln Beach Redevelopment. Rendering by Sasaki @sasakidesign from the masterplanning phase of the project. MKS is continuing to support Lincoln Beach’s return to the public as the historic preservation consultant to Digital Engineering & Imaging in the current construction phase. Something we are tracking from the prior phase is the production of the state historic marker sign, and our general role for the current phase is reviewing design work for historic preservation best practices so permitting goes smoothly when it’s time for a cultural resources impact review. Having a preservation professional looped in during design phases is a smart efficiency move, because it prevents cases where developers fund a full design package only to be sent back to the drawing board when the regulatory agencies check for compliance. Lincoln Beach is historically significant under Criteria A for its role in the development of social history in the area of Ethnic/Black Heritage as a once-segregated Black amusement park. So it’s less about who designed the buildings, and more about the cultural role of the site as a whole. There was no other place like Lincoln Beach in New Orleans during the time it operated from 1941-1965. According to federal guidelines for the treatment of certified historic sites, the general rule in redevelopment is to repair what can be repaired, and if alterations are proposed they should be done in a way to promote life safety while remaining sympathetic to the historic resources. This includes using similar or in-kind materials, or using new materials that clearly delineate the difference between old and new. This boardwalk design was my favorite part of the new interventions proposed in the prior design phase. It’s a boardwalk structure built on top of the compromised pool deck structure below. Much like in Europe when viewing ancient ruins via platforms above, it allows the visitor a safe way to experience what is real. As always, I recommend following New Orleans for Lincoln Beach for the latest community updates. @neworleans_for_lincolnbeach by @miakaplanstudio

Prior to starting my firm, I had the opportunity to do some Historic Structure Reporting and Conditions Assessments at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The project manager on the client side, John, was a wonderfully educated gentleman who introduced me to the work of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (1869–1958), the mother of “Parkitecture” who designed many buildings at Grand Canyon National Park. There is a special language in building that comes about when listening not just to a material but also to the people who inhabit the space it creates. The buildings at Yellowstone were not by Colter, but the language of the buildings was very much in the spirit of Parkitecture. Details within the building echoed the building’s natural setting. It was a wonderful lesson in assessing regional conditions because water damage, for instance, is caused by a variety of different scenarios like snow, ice, and the salt that melts it, which we rarely encounter in southeast Louisiana. Driving in the snow was another experience. Our team finished in time for the arrival of the first snow. Yellowstone had been closed for the winter, so it was just our group. My coworkers were from Montana and had chains on their massive truck tires, and seat warmers. I had a compact SUV rental. That day I felt as close to God as I could have been without meeting him directly. It was humbling, terrifying, and exhilarating to be out there. I pulled over and opened my windows to listen for a moment to how quiet the world had become. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been. by @miakaplanstudio