Our Histories

Ferdinand Lucien Rousseve (1904-1965)

Ferdinand Lucien Rousseve was the first person of African descent to become a licensed architect in Louisiana, in 1934. Born and raised in New Orleans’ Seventh Ward, Rousseve was a Black Creole deeply engaged with civic and social issues as a designer, artist, educator and Catholic. Over his career, he received degrees from Chicago’s Coyne Technical College, the University of Chicago, MIT and Harvard, and taught at Xavier University and Boston University.

These photos show the groundbreaking of Central Congregational Church, designed by Rousseve (not pictured), on Bienville Avenue in New Orleans in 1947 and the completed structure, which still stands; the Dr. Joseph Epps residence on Annette Street in Sugar Hill, Gentilly, which he designed in 1948; and the Ashton Theatre, which he renovated with Michael D’Orsi in 1929.

Perkins and James

Robert ‘Skip’ Perkins founded Perkins and Associates, credited as “the first Black-owned architecture firm in the Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi tri-state area”. Perkins, a Southern University School of Architecture graduate, partnered with fellow Southern graduate Clifton C. James to run a thriving practice in the 1980s and 1990s. Their works included landmarks in New Orleans and Baton Rouge as well as projects farther afield in Atlanta, Jacksonville and Jamaica.

Here are pictured the Treme Recreation Center and Phase 1 of the New Orleans Convention Center, a project undertaken by Perkins and James in partnership with Perez Associates as a part of the 1984 World’s Fair; the Knights of Peter Claver Hall on Orleans Avenue; and the John B. Cade Library at Southern University-Baton Rouge.

Hewitt-Washington and Associates

Southern University graduates James Washington and Lonnie Hewitt, Jr, after experiences including work for the firm of Perkins and James in the mid-1970s, founded their own practice in 1977. The firm rose to prominence with work on housing, educational and, community and civic facilities in New Orleans and across South Louisiana. Though Mr. Hewitt passed in early 2021, the firm is still active. Watch our event co-hosted with the AIA New Orleans Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, ‘Remembering Lonnie Hewitt’, here.

Pictured here is the groundbreaking for a townhome project at Eighth and Dryades in Central City, attended by Mr. Washington (far right) and Mr. Hewitt (third from right) as well as Mayor Ernest N. ‘Dutch’ Morial, far left; the Martin Luther King, Jr. School and Library in the Lower Ninth Ward and the Dryades YMCA and Booker T. Washington High School in Central City.