An architect and professor at the Tulane University School of Architecture, Malcolm Heard takes the French Quarter out of the myth of such writers as Faulkner, Percy, and Chopin and into the eyes of the astute observer. He captures the historical importance of the Quarter, meticulously placing its context in a street plan that remains essentially unchanged since 1721.

French Quarter Manual is arranged into three sections – types of houses, building components, and styles. Each is rich in detail, with sketches, archival photos, and intricate descriptions of history, style, structure, building materials, and living patterns. “That the crazy juxtaposition of self-important three-story townhouses with low, modest, carefully-made Creole cottages should yield a magical neighborhood attests not so much to architectural sophistication as to an alchemy of careful building, weather, time and a history of thoughtful human habitation,” writes Heard.

French Quarter Manual is a must-have for the curious tourist as well as the serious architecture student. “The book is a rare treasure,” says the Times-Picayune, “a glimpse of the Quarter as it was, as it is, and as it might be.”

Millsaps Magazine  |  Millsaps | Last Edited August 31, 1999