After the 107-year-old home’s foundation was deemed unsafe and the home declared a loss, Jorenda thought, ‘why not look to the future’ for inspiration for her dwelling. Shocking friends and pushing envelopes, for Jorenda, modern it would be. Salvaging pieces of her grandmother’s home took on deeper meaning, as it became apparent that the destruction from the tornado had been irreparable. Carefully and methodically, Jorenda directed her friend and salvage specialist Bennie Sims to help her save as much as they could for potential use in the house that was to come. In her own defense, Jorenda explains that Synope Plantation, a Greek Revival structure built in 1857 with Creole and Anglo-American influences, has more than enough history to keep her grounded in her roots. In particular Jorenda Stone fashion, the tornado which upended her home, helped AFTER A DEVASTATING TORNADO LEFT THE ANCESTRAL FAMILY HOME her break new ground and push the limits of OF JORENDA STONE DESTROYED, SHE LOOKED TO THE FUTURE FOR her own thinking, helping her galvanize her collective of collaborative friends to find the INSPIRATION FOR HER RIVERSIDE RENOVATION. new, the unexplored. Here is where Jorenda Stone, the Icon, shines. She brought together hen Mother Nature felled an oldher network of very capable architects, builders, painters, artists, growth oak through the center landscapers, carpenters, upholsterers and craftsmen and fielded a of Jorenda Stone’s ancestral West team to make her dream of an architecturally daring and significant Monroe home during the EF-2 home a reality. tornado of October 13, 2014, she Local architect and Jorenda’s long-time family friend, Fred had but one choice in light of the Bennett of Architect Associates and was a first responder to Jorenda’s devastating effects to the home’s emergency quest for developing plans. Her good friend and architect foundation. The day started emeritus Cookie Cookston provided guidance and reassurance like any other, but October 13, along the way as well. Says Fred, “Jorenda was a joy to work with. 2014 had long lasting effects for She’s a free spirit and was very open to creating something new that community activist and patron of would push the boundaries of residential design.” Fred’s preliminary the Arts, Jorenda Stone. Stone, who divided her time between her concept sketches dating from March 2015 show the voluminous Great family’s Synope Plantation in Columbia, LA and her grandmother’s Room for entertaining with a private Master Suite connected by an turn of the century home on Trenton Street in West Monroe, was entry Vestibule. The initial front elevation sketch from Trenton Street home alone when the skies darkened and a tornadic event, producing shows masterful proportions with soaring angular rooflines, which winds up to 125 miles per hour, barreled across her property, heading holds true with the finished residence. Instead of a typical garage, across the Ouachita River like a freight train. No match for the Jorenda challenged Fred to design a free-standing Party Pavilion that tornado, a huge oak upended, landing squarely on Jorenda’s home, could double as a carport connected by a covered breezeway to the trapping her momentarily inside. Like the real-life heroine that she main house. is, Jorenda called for extrication help, but managed to free herself Working with contractor Brian Ragan, Jorenda and her architect from the tangled mass of branches. It was only when she made her were soon posed an interesting question. A steel fabricator, Mark way outside that she realized the extent of the damage that had just Harris, had stopped by and inquired about the build-out, offering befallen our communities. a steel skeleton as an alternative to using lumber as the internal With her home looking more like Dorothy had just dropped it construction. Again, Jorenda asked, “Why not?” and pushed Fred into Oz, Jorenda donned the proverbial ruby red slippers and set out to find a way to acknowledge visually the internal steel structure. to find a way to restore her home. Now as you may know, Jorenda, His response was to expose the trusses in the vaulted vestibule and who was profiled as one of the original Bayou Icons in BayouLife, to add open-air steel transoms above the vestibule doors leading to is hailed for her unflinching commitment to the Arts in northeast public and private spaces of the home. After breaking ground on the Louisiana. Her homes in West Monroe and Columbia serve as modern new construction, the sight of shiny steel beams reaching sunward day salons for critical thinkers, artists, musicians, historians and the created quite the sensation, as onlookers slowed down to view the like, celebrating diversity and the richness of culture we share here futuristic structure. in the Delta. A consummate hostess who serves up conversation and If strength and modernism is at the home’s core, Jorenda knew thought-provoking questions alongside delicious heart-warming the exterior of her new home would need an artist’s touch and food and beverages, Jorenda first began to explore the idea restoring warmth. Anyone who has ever spent time with Jorenda, realizes a of the Victorian-era cottage and putting the puzzle back together. series of clinical, white structures is not part of her color palette. Enter
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216 OCTOBER 2018 | WWW.BAYOULIFEMAG.COM