Ehlinger & Associates, P.C.

05/18/2025

Ehlinger & Associates was recently mentioned again in the Advocate/Times Picayune. They misspelled our name, misattributed our roll, and quoted a delightful backhanded insult by Kimberly Rosenberg. The reporter, John McCusker, made no effort to reach out to us for comment.

If the article is otherwise correct, which I highly doubt given the sloppy nature of reporting, Kimberly Rosenberg has replaced Brian Block as the president of the Vieux Carre Commission. I don't remember her being involved at all during the project.

We did just recently close out the book-keeping on the project, and the results are simply amazing.

The available funds for construction at the beginning of the project were: $1,247,814.00. The actual construction costs were $1,329,901.75, less than 8% over budget over 4 years, which beats inflation by about 50%. The cost of delays caused by the VCC and other outside parties was over $604,360.00.

If you'd like to find out more about our recent project at Madame John's Legacy, please visit ehlinger.com

The Quarter's original French Colonial style architecture is rare there today. Here's why styles changed.

05/16/2025

Nottoway Plantation was heavily damaged in a fire the other day. In 2002, Ladd did a sketch of Nottoway for his quarterly newsletter, which I've reposted here, along with his sketch.

Article:
Nottoway Plantation house, this issue's limited edition print of a sketch by Ladd P. Ehlinger, near Whitecastle in Iberville Parish, Louisiana is one of the largest plantation houses ever built in the
southern region of the U.S. Designed by the renowned architect Henry Howard as a result of an informal competition of several submittals by architects to John Hampden Randolph, the owner. Randolph's father had come to Louisiana from Virginia in 1820, and brought with him the tradition of the planter's life, which was maintained and expanded by his son.

Nottoway plantation consisted of 6,200 acres purchased by the father in 1841, who initially built the plantation with 155 African slaves into a sugar cane business. The son expanded the plantation
business and it became very profitable -- so much so that one of the most ambitious mansions of the south was initiated and completed in 1858.

The main house is placed about 200 feet from and faces the Mississippi River among oaks, magnolias, pecan trees and sweet olives. It is composed of 64 rooms on three levels with the crowning achievement being the semi-circular Ballroom on the first level, with the Master Bedroom above that can be seen in
the sketch in the center. The columns and brackets and the 200 or so windows are all tall and narrow in the Italianate style. The entablature is heavy and with the Italianate brackets is close to the evolving Victorian style. The balustrades are cast iron as most of the New Orleans balconies were, but of Italianate motifs. The exterior and interior of Nottoway is white in color, including the interior Ballroom Corinthian columns, marble mantels, curtains and
even the floors.

A neighbor built an even larger plantation mansion called Belle Grove of pink brick and plaster to deliberately contrast with Nottoway's white. To oneups-man-ship Rudolph further, Belle
Grove was designed by the same architect, Henry Howard. Belle Grove is in total ruin today, while Nottoway survives with grace.

In 1862, Randolph took most of his slaves and went to Texas to work a cotton plantation to keep his business afloat. His wife, Emily Jane Liddel Rudolph stayed behind with most of their ten children
to keep Nottoway safe from harm and to run it as best she could under the circumstances. The teen age daughters were sent away to a safer location.

Emily Jane at the age of 45 protected the house when Union gunboats were in a battle with Confederate troops on her front lawn. The gunboats actually shelled the house inadvertently. The Union officer in charge of one of the gunboats realized that he had stayed at Nottoway before the war and stopped the shelling, sparing the house. The Union army never entered the house other than to search for weapons, though they did bivouac on the grounds.

Today, Nottoway has been fully restored and converted to a Bed and Breakfast and serves as a living museum of plantation life. The main house, out buildings and cabins are furnished as hotel rooms in the style of the plantation days. Tours call on the facility, and are
fed in a large meeting room / restaurant that has been built for that purpose. The price is moderate and worth the visit. You may reach them at www.nottoway.com.

01/17/2025

Ladd's 1st edition Newsletter Sketches are being released for sale on e-bay until they run out. Today's offering:

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Canterbury Cathedral-Architecture Print: 8.5x11 Sketch by Ladd P. Ehlinger at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

01/15/2025

E&A will be making the remaining inventory of Ladd's Original Sketches available on E-Bay. The first up is his final sketch for the 2021 1st Quarter newsletter, of Houmas House Plantation in Darrow, LA.

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Houmas House Plantation-Architecture Print: 8.5x11 Sketch by Ladd P. Ehlinger at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

07/21/2023

One of New Orleans oldest houses will soon have a new look after years of debate, delays and historic forensics work – including a recent archeological dig. -By Frank Perez

11/04/2022

Efflorescence is the deposit of crystalline salt on the surface of masonry or concrete. It is caused by excessive dampness within the material, which dissolves the salts that are a part of the cement or clay (for bricks).

As the water moves to the surface and then dries, the salts crystallize on the surface, often in a glittery, white powder that "flowers", but also in streaks down a surface if there's enough water to drip after surfacing. When efflorescence occurs from above, the salt deposits can even form stalactites.

While the efflorescence itself isn't damaging and can be easily cleaned with mild muriatic acid mix, it is always indicative of a water intrusion issue through the cement or masonry. Don't mistake the salt as the damaging component! It's the water.

If you do find a way to remove all of the salt, what you might be left with is a crumbly mess that needs to be completely replaced! The salt is actually a component of the cement/masonry, and its complete removal will structurally weaken the material by leaving air pores behind where the salt used to be helping to bind the material together.

If you simply seal the surface of the materials to prevent water leaving and creating efflorescence, you might just be trapping more water within, which can actually accelerate damage.

If the salt crystallizes within the cement or brick, it can create spalling (the cracking off of pieces). Spalling can also happen if water freezes within these pores.

The most effective way to handle efflorescence is to determine the source(s) of the water and stop them from entering - which sounds easy enough, but is not always straightforward.

11/04/2021

These are the accompanying plans for the Lakefront Airport Fire Station, 1972, and photos of the finished building!

11/04/2021

Scanned some drawings from our archive. This is a perspective of the Lakefront Airport Fire Station, completed in 1973.

06/02/2021

We are sad to announce the passing of Ladd Ehlinger Sr., founder and principle of our firm. He founded E&A over 50 years ago, and has been a bedrock in the New Orleans community for at least as long.

Services will be held on Monday, June 7th, from 1pm-2pm at Lakelawn Funeral Home in Metairie. If you would like to pay your respects, but can not attend n person, we will be hosting a zoom meeting, linked at the bottom of this post.

His son, R. Perrin Ehlinger, Architect of 20+ years and manager of our Huntsville Offices, will be assuming Ladd's responsibilities for all continuing work that E&A is currently engaged in. If you have any questions, wish to discuss your active project, or simply want to share stories of your experiences with Ladd, please feel free to call.

Thank you all so much for your condolences, and if you are hearing about this for the first time through Facebook, we apologize - we have been working through all of our contacts among the many projects outstanding, but it is a slow process.

Join Zoom Meeting, Monday 7th June, 2021, 1pm-2pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87101207961?pwd=dXk1MW84QUh4SHVNUnVVZ0NlQW93dz09

Meeting ID: 871 0120 7961
Passcode: 12345

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...