KINGSWAY

Located in the French Quarter, Kingsway is a legendary 12,000 square foot private residence designed beautifully by Los Angeles based LM Pagano, architect Wayne Troyer and owner Sean Cummings.  This iconic Italianate building is nationally recognized, with features in the New York Times, Robb Report and Louisiana Homes and Gardens, among other press.  As with each of Cummings’ boutique hotels and lofts, here one finds great beauty infused with great meaning.  Historic, classic and timeless design evocative of this intriguing PLACE.  Yet, modern sensibilities, reflective of a new TIME, with new talent and new ideas fueling this city.

Built in 1848, Kingsway has been owned by all manner of local characters.  Among the colorful cast was Prohibition-era restaurateur Count Leon Arnaud Cezenave and Germaine Wells, his debaucherous, Easter parade founding daughter.  Currently, her many Queen of Carnival gowns are displayed at the family’s namesake Arnaud’s Restaurant.  During the 1990’s the property housed perhaps the most prolific recording studio in the world, Kingsway Studio, owned and operated by esteemed producer Daniel Lanois.  Venerable names in the industry flocked here, among them U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Pearl Jam, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., Robbie Robertson, Sheryl Crow, Iggy Pop, Blind Melon, Cowboy Mouth and other respected artists.  Nicolas Cage later owned the property, filming “Sonny” at the house in 2002.  In 2004, Sean Cummings bought and renovated Kingsway.  Says Cummings, “The architectural scale is the great luxury to me.  In it, the Italian monastery table, fertility bed from Senegal, patinaed bar, the mesmerizing Swarovski Cascade Chandelier (floor-to-ceiling)  and other elements tell a joyful story about this city and the mosaic of humanity that created it.”  Cummings periodically makes the property available for weddings, film, photography and life’s epiphany moments.

For years some of the world’s more talented artists and entrepreneurs have been drawn to Kingsway for its ambiance, born of Lanois’ and now the Pagano/Cummings duo’s eclectic take on beauty.  Underlying it all is the idea that this particularly sublime space stokes passion and the divine impulse to create within the quirky, creative culture of invention that is New Orleans today.

All photography provided by Studio WTA.