Restoring the Pink Palace

THE PAST AND FUTURE CONVERGE IN A CAREFUL RENOVATION PLAN FOR ONE OF A. HAYS TOWN’S MOST ICONIC WORKS

Story by Caroline Alberstadt • Photos by Paul Kieu

The iconic columned, Greek Revival building at the University of Louisiana Lafayette’s Hilliard Art Museum, a landmark of the Acadiana landscape, has stood since 1967 as a prime example of the architecture of Louisiana legend A. Hays Town. The structure has served as a cultural gathering place and formal backdrop for campus and community events—hosting 19,000 visitors per year. Time and functional alterations have impacted the building’s character, modifying Town’s original design and necessitating a modern-day restoration.

To return the structure to its roots, a $1.5 million capital campaign, ongoing since 2018, has been supported by locals and alumni, some well-known—such as the museum’s founder Paul Hilliard— and others anonymous. Fundraising cur- rently stands at the 75% mark, thanks to a generous gift by Lafayette native Roger Ogden, namesake of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans. The funds will go towards restoring the 4,300 square foot building to its prior glory while simultaneously creating more usable space for classrooms, conferences, programs, and events. A café and dining facility is also planned for ULL students and the surrounding community to enjoy.

Considered to be one of the most significant architectural projects of the moment here in Louisiana, the mastermind behind the restoration is Lafayette architect Kevin Gossen of Gossen Architects. His admiration for the A. Hays Town style is evident in the architect’s sense of scale and proportion, as well as an assured knowledge of the details appropriate to the historical vocabulary of each project. As a young boy growing up in Lafayette, Gossen admired Mr. Town’s work and sought to emulate his style.

When he was just a few years out of architecture school, he boldly called the renowned architect and asked for an audience. Town graciously invited him to his home in Baton Rouge, where he spent several hours talking shop with his mentor, even getting the chance to go into the attic to view flat files full of hand drawn plans documenting the architect’s many projects. He observed how Town’s style had evolved across the span of his career, increasing in confidence as he leaned into the use of time-honored, vernacular building methods.

Over the course of Gossen’s own career, he has continued to expand his design repertoire and embraced more diverse styles, but those foundational principles of scale, proportion, and refined detail so signature to Town’s approach remain with him.

The magnitude of modifying a project as significant as Town’s might intimidate architects without Gossen’s keen eye for detail or drive for authenticity. He faces the great challenge of restoring while simultaneously modernizing the iconic architectural work. Incorporating new functional technology in a way that conceals modern building systems without compromising the exquisite architecture is priority one. Ironically, the more building technology advances, the more tools are available to camouflage it, with ventilation and lighting becoming smaller and more effective, without sacrificing performance. This is Gossen’s specialty. As a renowned specialist in preservation, Gossen aims to ensure the architecture is respected and preserved, acting as a revival of Town’s original vision for the building. “I’ve been privileged to work on many of Mr. Town’s projects over the years, with the goal to respect and honor his original design intent, while delicately balancing modern amenities and client needs”.

Originally patterned off the Hermitage, built in 1812 in Darrow, Louisiana, the interior layout of the Town Building is based on the traditional Greek Revival home plan with a center foyer and hall, leading to the parlor and a Louisiana cypress wood-paneled library. Because the building is designed more like a large residence, it has been a particular challenge to convert its functional use to a space for public events. Use as an art gallery or museum space is impractical due to the abundance of large windows, which pose a threat to precious artworks by exposing them to the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

For this reason, the building has been somewhat underutilized, something the UL Foundation intends to rectify with this massive overhaul. The warm and inviting interior spaces of the Town building will offer room to gather for small parties, or to simply hang out and study. The newly renovated rooms on both the first and second floors will be more accommodating for small lectures, programs and classes—there are even plans to incorporate a smart classroom on the second floor.

Long overdue upgrades of building sys- tems include bringing restroom facilities up to ADA standards, improving vertical circulation, and adding an elevator These improvements will expand capacity for programming within the space—making the building a more useful facility on the campus as well as providing a source of revenue via usage for private events. Future visitors can look forward to enjoying lunch in the parlor or having cocktails by the fireplace in the library of this beautifully appointed building as well as perusing a planned permanent exhibit dedicated to the building’s venerated architect.

Once nicknamed the Pink Elephant by locals, the renovation seeks to return the exterior walls to their former blush hue. Using traditional materials and building methods, the bricks that form the walls and columns were handmade from the red clay local to our area. These handhewn bricks could be brittle and imperfect, requiring a plaster coating to smooth out the uneven surfaces. The distinct color of the plaster was created with a mix of white lime and broken brick.The same method will be used in the new renovation to restore the soft pink glow to the currently stark white plaster walls.

Among the aesthetic priorities will be the replacement of the asphalt shingle roof with a more historically-accurate, but costly, slate tile roof—an ongoing project to be completed as funding becomes available. The tile for the original roof was reclaimed French slate from

New Orleans which had been used as ballast on ships coming into port. Today, a single large door greets visitors to the building, but Gossen plans to recall Town’s original design using a pair of small French doors by creating a compromise: a single front door that appears to be a pair. This allows the opening to be more accommodating, and the style more aligned with the Town sense of proportion.

Gossen describes the building as a local landmark at ULL. “It’s important to the community to respect and preserve it,” he said. This was never clearer than when esteemed architects Eskew Dumez Ripple designed the adjacent Hilliard Art Museum, using the Town building as the key leitmotif. Instead of trying to compete with it, they created a front façade of reflective glass running parallel to the Town building across the courtyard, creating a mirror image in its reflection. It’s a “faceless façade”, says Gossen, giving the now historic building hierarchical dominance.

Gossen’s work carefully renovating the Town Building is in itself an act of homage to the man who left such an indelible mark upon the southern building landscape, and on his own life and career as an architect and preservationist. Mr. Town set the bar high for authenticity and made using local materials such as clay tile and heart of pine floors desirable, employing skilled craftsmen and applying age-old techniques. The endeavor to restore the building will be like taking steps forward and backward at the same time in a grand gesture to reflect the vision of the master once more, while assuring the building will remain relevant to current and future generations. •

Visit hilliardmuseum.org/support to learn more about the Hilliard Art Museum’s capital campaign to restore the A. Hays Town building on its property, and learn more about Gossen’s work at gossenarchitects.com.