NEW ORLEANS – Tomorrow, Jan. 31, the city’s Central Business District Historic District Landmarks Commission will vote on whether to approve construction on a rooftop addition for an existing one-and-a-half story commercial building at 516 Julia St. in the Central Business District.
According to architectural plans from the city’s OneStopApp permits and licensing portal online, plans are to turn the vacant building at 516 Julia St. into a two-story restaurant called Sophia that will have a pizza bar on the first floor.
Plans are to build an enclosed rooftop addition that will house a kitchenette and office and conference room.
Despite the neighborhood guidelines prohibiting construction of penthouse additions on buildings that are one-and-a-half-stories tall, the city’s Architectural Review Committee (ARC) of the Central Business District Historic District Landmarks Commission voted to approve architectural plans at its Jan. 16 meeting.
According to a letter sent by the commission to applicant Kim Finney, "the ARC determined that the proposed addition was set back far enough that it will not be visible from the front elevation, with only ancillary mechanical equipment possibly visible from the rear.”
The architectural commission recommended conceptual approval with the details to be worked out at the staff level.
The item has been placed on the agenda for a vote at the Central Business District Historic District Landmarks Commission meeting to be held on Wednesday, Jan. 31 in the 21st floor conference room, Orleans Tower, 1340 Poydras Street, at 10 a.m.
-By Jenny Peterson, Associate News Editor, Biz New Orleans
