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An award-winning Lake Terrace home designed by Lee Ledbetter asks $1.38M

Built of brick and glass, this contemporary lakefront home is an art collector’s dream.

By Missy Wilkinson Updated
A square brick two-story building with large glass windows
The home has a wraparound balcony and Lake Pontchartrain.

If it wasn’t located in a residential neighborhood, this blocky brick, glass, and steel home might be mistaken for an art museum—and that’s not far from its original function. Lee Ledbetter, the architect behind the Sydney and Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden, designed the home in 2002 for Dr. Russell Albright, a prominent photography collector. It has re-emerged on the market after being delisted in July.

Its museum-quality lighting, 16-foot floating ceilings, and natural stone floors served as perfect blank slate for Albright’s photographs, which comprised “one of the finest collections of contemporary American and European photography in the United States,” according to a 2004 article in the Times-Picayune.

Albright passed away in 2017 and donated his collection to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). The Lakeshore Drive home remains a noteworthy work in its own right. It has been featured in NOMA’s Art and Home Tour, House & Garden magazine, and in 2006, it was named one of New Orleans Magazine’s top 10 new buildings of the decade. The house also appears in Ledbetter’s book, The Art of Place: Architecture and Interiors.

Highlights include a floating, curvilinear staircase that gracefully spans double-height windows made of impact-resistant glass. The 4,500-square-foot home’s steel frame construction is also hurricane- and termite-resistant.

A stainless-steel chimney provides contemporary style, and the kitchen and butler’s pantry, wine coolers, illuminated live oaks, and bamboo-shaded terrace provide an ideal backdrop for entertaining.

Via: Jared English of Congress Realty

A white room with stone floors, columns, and a grand piano, plus a curving staircase.
A curving staircase makes a dramatic squiggle in the entry.
The home’s lighting system was designed to showcase art.
A dining room with a long table, large abstract painting, and modern chandelier.
An all-white bedroom with a floor-to-ceiling window.
The master bedroom overlooks green space by the Lake Pontchartrain levee.

A kitchen with minimalist cabinetry, a floor to ceiling glass window, an egg-shaped modern chandelier and a breakfast nook.
The kitchen has commercial-grade stainless-steel appliances.
A grid-like layout of tiles and crushed stone is surrounded by a fence and tall bamboo in the backyard
A bamboo-lined courtyard provides space for entertaining.

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New Orleans Museum of Art

1 Collins Diboll Circle, , LA 70124 Visit Website

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