John Jacob Desmond (April 5, 1922

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

- March 27, 2008

Zachary, Louisiana Zachary is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies north of the city of Baton Rouge, and had a population of 14,960 at the 2010 census, up from 11,275 in 2000. At the 2020 census, Zachary's population increased to ...

) was an architect from Hammond and

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

Early life

John Desmond was the third child of Timothy Joseph Desmond (Cork City, Ireland) and Rose Isabelle Dvorak Desmond. After living for some time in New York, the family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Desmond graduated from Jesuit High School. After moving with his family to Hammond, Louisiana, he became a recipient of a legislative scholarship for his first year at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

. By working in the cafeteria he was able to complete a bachelor's degree in architecture. He subsequently received a master's of Architecture from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

where he studied under

William Wurster William Wilson Wurster (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1973) was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, best known for his residential desig ...

and

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...

. He was a Second Lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Madison in the Pacific theater and also saw action at the

Battle of Anzio The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944 (beginning with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle) to June 5, 1944 (ending with the capture of Rome). The op ...

Career

After returning from WWII but before practicing architecture in Hammond, Desmond worked for

Skidmore Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...

, in New York City; A. Hays Town in Baton Rouge; and the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

, in Knoxville. Some of the buildings he designed include the Southeastern Louisiana University cafeteria in Hammond, LSU Union, the Louisiana State Library, the Cane's River Center (originally named the Riverside Centroplex and later the Baton Rouge River Center), the Pennington Bio-Medical Research Center, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Louisiana State Archives, the Louisiana Naval Museum, St. Joseph's Cathedral as well as his own residence, all in Baton Rouge. In New Orleans, he designed the Rogers Memorial Chapel, as well as the Lindy Boggs Center, both on the Campus of his alma mater,

References

1922 births 2008 deaths Tulane School of Architecture alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni Architects from Denver Architects from New Orleans United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War II {{US-architect-stub