The Troubadour

Landis brought new life to the old Rault Continental Center in New Orleans when it transformed the structure into the 184-room Joie de Vivre Hotel in 2016. Teamwork and close collaboration amongst the project team, owner, architect, and subcontractors were critical to keeping the project on track and ensuring its timely completion. The 184-room hotel offers guests a first-class dining experience within its first- and second-floor restaurant. The hotel also features bars on the first and second floors, as well as the rooftop, and boasts several spacious corporate meeting spaces. At the time, there was a great shortage of rooftop amenities in New Orleans due to code requirement challenges, so the hotel's rooftop area was a source of great pride for Landis' project team. The building's age presented several challenges. The center, which was originally constructed in 1967, was damaged in a fire that broke out in 1972, killing several people. In the years that followed, the center repeatedly changed ownership and was left to deteriorate. Landis also faced difficulty in trying to level and plumb the existing concrete floors with the new exterior facades, as the existing structure was anything but square or true at each level. To create a precisely aligned façade, Landis built a cantilevered structural steel plate system that allowed them to install the exterior envelope. In the end, the new Joie De Vivre Hotel was hailed as a beautiful and modernized space that maintains and celebrates New Orleans' laissez les bon temps roulez culture.