Sometimes we all just need to get away from the office to truly appreciate the potential of our chosen profession, architecture. Beginning fourteen years ago, our office was entrusted by AIA Louisiana to orchestrate the annual Celebrate Architecture design symposium, bringing architects statewide together in Baton Rouge for a full day of interaction with several of the most influential architects from across the country. We’ve discovered that you need to keep these guys around for at least a day for them to reveal the complete intricacies of their projects and the often winding path taken to create buildings of significance.

This year, our speakers included Joshua Prince-Ramus of REX from New York (pictured above with moderator, Doug Ashe), Warren Schwartz of Schwartz/Silver Architects from Boston – the designer of the annual site of Celebrate Architecture, the Shaw Center for the Arts, and Roberto de Leon and Ross Primmer of De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop from Louisville. Methodologies, triumphs, ideas, disappointments, and inspirations were shared with the AIA audience, who (we hope) return to their respective offices re-energized from the shared experience.

And yes, we did make sure that the visiting architects had the opportunity to eat some crawfish and alligator washed down with a cold Abita.