News TSA loses distinguished Alumnus
John Jacob Desmond, FAIA-E, age 86, passed away Thursday, March 27, 2008 at Lane Memorial Hospital, Zachary, Louisiana. Mr. Desmond was an amazingly talented architect who inspired many designers and architects.
Born in Denver, Colorado in 1922, John lived most of his life in Hammond and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A graduate of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Tulane University and a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied under the A.I.A. Gold Medal Winners, W.W. Wurster and Alvar Aalto of Finland. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as Second Lieutenant aboard the destroyer the U.S.S. Madison, escorting convoys across the Atlantic and also seeing action in the Mediterranean at the Battle of Anzio. After the war, upon finishing his education, he worked for Skidmore Owings & Merrill, in New York City; Architect A. Hays Town in Baton Rouge; and for the Tennessee Valley Authority, in Knoxville.
In 1953, John returned to Hammond to open the first architectural practice in the Florida parishes. The firm served as school board architect in Tangipahoa Parish for approximately twenty years. Since the early 1970s he worked exclusively from Baton Rouge shaping much of the public domain of the city. His architectural firm evolved over the years and included many of the region’s architects at various times. His significant local buildings of interest include the LSU Union, the Louisiana State Library, the Baton Rouge Centroplex, the Pennington Bio-Medical Research Center, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Louisiana State Archives, renovations and additions to St. Joseph’s Cathedral, and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Many of his designs throughout the state have won national, regional, and state A.I.A. awards. As a member of the Urban Design Committee of the American Institute of Architects he served on more than 14 R/UDAT-Regional/Urban Design Assistance Teams nationwide.
John Desmond’s drawings and photographs have been featured in numerous national and international magazines and have been exhibited in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Washington D. C. and New York City. His drawings are also featured in his book, Louisiana’s Antebellum Architecture, published by Claitor’s in 1979. He taught in the Tulane, LSU and Southern University Schools of Architecture. Throughout his professional career, he received many honors and awards including Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects for “Significant Contribution to Design,” “Special Award for Preservation” from the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, “Outstanding Alumnus” of the Tulane University School of Architecture, the Arts Council of Baton Rouge’s Mayor-President’s Award for “Excellence in the Arts,” and the Louisiana A.I.A. Gold Award Lifetime Achievement Award. The professional papers and drawings developed by his firm over the years are deposited in the archives at the Hill Memorial Library of the Louisiana State University. He was retired at the time of his death.
04.08.08