Located in New Orleans’ Central Business District, adjacent to the historic Roosevelt Hotel and Orpheum Theater, this 22-story tower serves as a monastery in urban context for an order of Benedictine monks. Due to the compressed nature of the site and the density of its context, I felt organizing the program into a tower was the most logical option.

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The Benedictine order is characterized by “Ora et Labora”; Prayer and Work, the program itself is split into these two components. The lower portion of the building houses outreach components such as a soup kitchen for the city’s homeless to be manned by the monks as well as showers and facilities for those in need. The upper portion of the tower is meant to be completely isolated from the rest of the city to fulfill the needs of the order. The two programs are separated by a 5-story “Breathing Room” – a semi-enclosed space meant to filter the air before circulating it through the rest of the building.