Overview

Waggonner & Ball Architects, APC is a broad-based architectural and planning firm with 30 years experience on a wide variety of architectural and planning projects. It is wholly owned by J. David Waggonner III, FAIA, who serves as President, and F. Macnaughton Ball, Jr., FAIA, who serves as Secretary/Treasurer. Located in New Orleans’ historic Garden District, the eighteen person firm has authored award winning designs in the educational, retail, office, religious, government, residential and planning categories. The firm has designed numerous institutional and municipal master plans, and was a key participant in the Unified New Orleans Plan for District 2 and the post-Katrina Recovery Plan for St. Bernard Parish. Waggonner & Ball is committed to design excellence and sustainable building practices. Waggonner & Ball was preceded by a series of firms generating from the sole proprietorship established in 1970 by the founder, F. Monroe Labouisse, Jr. From 1982 until the death of Mr. Labouisse at the beginning of 1986, Messrs. Labouisse and Waggonner were the sole owners of the firm, then named Labouisse & Waggonner. In 1989 Mr. Ball joined Mr. Waggonner in the practice, which was renamed Waggonner & Ball Architects. We provide complete architectural services including facility assessment, programming, site planning, schematic design, design development, construction documents, bidding and contract negotiation, construction administration, and post-occupancy evaluation. The firm also provides services for master planning and urban design, as well as interior design. The firm's capabilities are expanded by an established professional team of consultants in civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. Other commonly employed consultants include cost estimators and landscape architects, while specialists with technical expertise such as acousticians are engaged as required.

History & Philosophy

While maintaining a historical restoration specialization and expertise as the bedrock that informs and raises the quality of our practice, we have over the years shifted our emphasis and moved towards new construction in which contemporary design idioms are prevalent. The development of a current day architectural language for use in historical, traditional or well-established settings has been a firm concern since the beginning. In concord with each client’s mission and program, belief in the primacy of site and the land, and respect for the importance of context and culture influence in basic ways the architectural form developed. Techniques of construction and the nature of materials available in the particular locale appropriate to the project are criteria precedent to design. The combination of an understanding of history with a rooted yet critical appreciation of regional vernaculars has resulted in our work becoming focused on concerns more fundamental than style. Employing a modern sensibility, our attempt is to get to the essence of true architecture, which is timeless.