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With all the talk these days about promoting business in New Orleans, we’d like to take a moment and recognize a local business that is garnering national recognition for its leadership and innovation. Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, an architecture and planning firm located on Canal St., recently received a National Honor Award for architecture and its Director R. Allen Eskew was presented with one of the most prestigious individual honors bestowed by the industry - membership in the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) College of Fellows.

There are fewer than 2,400 fellows out of a total AIA membership of more than 70,000. Election to fellowship not only recognizes the achievements of architects as individuals, but also their significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level.

Eskew was nominated by the Louisiana AIA chapter in recognition of his numerous architectural and urban design achievements, many of which are national in scope, including the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Fort Lauderdale, the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, and the Estuarine Habitats and Coastal Fisheries Center in Lafayette, Louisiana. Under his leadership, his firm, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple has won two consecutive national Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects, a distinguished achievement for a Louisiana architecture firm.

In his letter nominating Eskew for fellowship, architect Eean McNaughton, FAIA, described Eskew as a “master designer with incredible sensitivity to place making, form giving and details…I have observed Allen’s firm grow into a major regional, and now national firm creating design excellence.”

Eskew, a native of Alexandria, Louisiana, holds a M.A. in Architecture from the University of California and B.A. in Architecture from Louisiana State University. Among his many civic contributions, he is a board member of CABL: Council for A Better Louisiana, a member of the New Orleans City Planning Commission’s Mississippi River Strategic Planning Task Force, the Warehouse Area Business Alliance, The New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, and Idea Village, an entrepreneurial incubator.

Eskew was inducted during a ceremony on May 9 at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. during the 2003 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in San Diego, CA.

Congratulations to Allen Eskew and all the folks at Eskew+Dumez+Ripple.

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