Luckett & Farley is an architecture, engineering, and interior design firm based in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. It was founded in 1853, making it (along with

SmithGroup SmithGroup is an international architectural, engineering and planning firm. Established in Detroit in 1853 by architect Sheldon Smith, SmithGroup is the longest continually operating architecture and engineering firm in the United States that ...

) the oldest continually operating

architecture firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countri ...

in the United States that is not a

wholly owned subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company (law), company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company ...

. The firm began under the name ''Rogers, Whitestone & Co., Architects'', changing its name to ''Henry Whitestone'' in 1857, to ''D.X. Murphy & Brother'' in 1890, and to ''Luckett & Farley'' in 1962. The company is 100% employee-owned as of January 1, 2012 and concentrates on automotive, industrial, federal government, higher education, health and wellness, and corporate/commercial markets. There are more LEED professionals at Luckett & Farley than any other company in Kentucky with 50, as of December 2012.

History

The Whitestone period

Henry Whitestone Henry Whitestone (1819–1893) was an architect born in County Clare, Ireland who became one of the main architects of Louisville, Kentucky. He is believed to have studied at University of Dublin. He designed a number of works that are listed o ...

(1819–1893) was born at Clondegad House in County Clare, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States amidst famine and depression with his wife Henrietta in January 1852 from Innis, Ireland after he was recommended to

Isaiah Rogers Isaiah Rogers (August 17, 1800 – April 13, 1869) was an American architect from Massachusetts who eventually moved his practice south, where he was based in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. He completed numerous designs for hotels, ...

(1800–1869), for his work on the County Clare Courthouse. Rogers was an architect based in Cincinnati who came to be known as "the father of the American hotel". Whitestone's first project with Rogers was the Frankfort Hotel in Frankfort, Kentucky and a partnership formed in November 1853 when Rogers was contracted to rebuild the recently burned Louisville Hotel. Whitestone moved from Frankfort to Louisville and received 2/5 of all profits from the services he performed with Rogers. The first office of Isaiah Rogers and Henry Whitestone was located at Bullit and Main Streets, near where the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere is located today. Together they transformed Louisville into a "five-story city" and introduced the Italianate architectural style to the region. Whitestone separated from Rogers in 1857 and soon became the preeminent architecture firm in Louisville through the 1880s. Notably, Charles J. Clarke worked for Henry Whitestone during the Civil War and later formed a partnership with Arthur Loomis, to form the historically significant Louisville architecture firm ''

Clarke and Loomis Arthur Loomis (January 28, 1859 – January 8, 1935) was an architect who worked from 1876 through the 1920s in the Louisville, Kentucky area. After working for noted architect Charles J. Clarke for several years, they became partners in 1891, cr ...

''. Whitestone retired in approximately 1881 and died in 1893. An 1893 publishing of ''The American Architect and Building News'' wrote of Whitestone, :''"...forty years ago, in the prime of life, he was in the active practice of his profession, erecting buildings in that perennial style of Italian Renaissance, of which he was a master, and from which he was never lured by passing fashion."'' He is buried at

Cave Hill Cemetery Cave Hill Cemetery is a Victorian era National Cemetery and arboretum located at Louisville, Kentucky. Its main entrance is on Baxter Avenue and there is a secondary one on Grinstead Drive. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of buri ...

in Louisville Kentucky alongside his wife and two daughters (Section C, lot 39). A marker located on Main St., across from the old Louisville Hotel, bears his name.

The D.X. Murphy era

Dennis Xavier ("D.X.") Murphy (11/3/1853-8/27/1933), was born in Louisville after his parents immigrated from Ireland, began working as a draftsman at age 16 for Henry Whitestone. By 1874 he was the head draftsman and eventually took over the practice in 1880 just before Whitestone's retirement. It was at this point that the firm was renamed ''D.X. Murphy''. His brothers James C. Murphy (1865-1935), later joined the practice in 1890 at which time the firm became ''D.X. Murphy and Brother''. Their younger brother Peter C. Murphy subsequently joined and together they designed many of Louisville's Catholic Churches, among many other notable buildings, for significantly reduced fees on the order of 1% of construction costs. The Murphy's sister, Sr. Mary Anselm, was a nun with the

Sisters of Charity of Nazareth The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth (SCN) is a Roman Catholic order of nuns. It was founded in 1812 near Bardstown, Kentucky, when three young women responded to Bishop John Baptist Mary David's call for assistance in ministe ...

in Bardstown, Kentucky which likely led to many of the commissionings. The firm's most famous work was that of the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs in 1895, designed by 24-year-old Joseph D. Baldez and constructed in time for the 21st Kentucky Derby. A number of works by D.X. Murphy or the firm are listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Works include: * Cathedral of the Assumption (1852), 443 S. 5th St.

Louisville, KY Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

(Keely, William; Murphy, D.X.) Gothic Revival. NRHP-listed *

Churchill Downs Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was ...

, 700 Central Ave.

(Murphy, D.X. & Co.), NRHP-listed * Inter-Southern Insurance Building, 239-247 S. 5th St.

(Murphy, D.X. & Brother), NRHP-listed * Jefferson Branch Louisville Free Public Library, 1718 W. Jefferson St.

(Murphy, D.X. & Bros.), NRHP-listed * Jefferson County Jail, 514 W. Liberty St.

(Murphy, D.X.& Co.), NRHP-listed * Kentucky Wagon Works, 2601 S. 3rd St.

(Murphy, D.X.), NRHP-listed * National Tobacco Works Branch Stemmery, 2410-18 W. Main St.

(D.X. Murphy & Brothers), NRHP-listed * National Tobacco Works Branch Drying House, 2400 W. Main St.

(D.X. Murphy & Brothers), NRHP-listed * Presentation Academy, 861 S. 4th St.

(Murphy, D.X., & Brothers), NRHP-listed * Snead Manufacturing Building, 817 W. Market St.

(Murphy D.X. & Brothers), NRHP-listed *One or more works in Butchertown Historic District,

(Murphy, D.X.,& Co.), NRHP-listed *One or more works in Savoy Historic District, 209--221 W. Jefferson St.

(Murphy, D.X.), NRHP-listed Dennis Murphy died in 1933 and is buried at St. Louis Cemetery in Louisville. In 1935 ''D.X. Murphy and Brother'' was sold by James Murphy's wife to ''D.X. Murphy and Brother Incorporated'' for a sum of $1,147, at which time Peter Murphy became president. By 1943, Peter Murphy was named chairman of the board and William G. O'Toole became president. Thomas D. Luckett II (1909 – 1996) became majority stakeholder in the firm upon O'Toole's passing in 1956 while Jean D. Farley (b. 1927) was named Vice President. ''D.X. Murphy and Bro., Inc'' became ''Luckett & Farley, Inc'' on May 25, 1962, with T.D. Luckett and J.D. Farley sharing ownership. D.X. Murphy occupied the old Louisville Trust Building (208 S. 5th St) until 1962 when the office was relocated to the Washington Building (4th and Market), which has since been demolished.

Luckett & Farley

By the time the firm was renamed ''Luckett & Farley Inc.'' in 1962 to reflect the change of ownership, civil and structural engineering services were also provided; Mechanical and electrical engineering services were added in 1970 in order to deliver better-coordinated construction documents to clients. By 1973 the firm name was changed to ''Luckett & Farley Architects, Engineers, and Construction Managers, Inc.'' and by the end of 1982, Jean Farley sold the company to Dennis Dewitt, Ronald Kendall, and Douglas Wilkerson. In 2000 an

employee stock ownership plan Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Em ...

(ESOP) was formed and by 2002, leadership was transferred to Ed Jerdonek, Belinda Gates, Gail Miller, and Rob Diamond. A design-build subsidiary, ''LFDB'', was created in 1999 but has since separated with the company as of 2011. Belinda Gates retired from Luckett & Farley in 2010. On January 1, 2012, Jerdonek, Miller, and Diamond sold their interest in the company to the employee-owners, making Luckett & Farley 100% employee-owned. Luckett & Farley occupied the Washington Building from 1963 to 1968 when it moved to 215 W. Breckinridge and again in 1997 to their current location in the Prince Wells Building at 737 S. Third St. Luckett & Farley uses

building information modeling Building information modeling (BIM) is a process supported by various tools, technologies and contracts involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. Building informatio ...

technology to produce its drawings.

Departments

Departments consist of the following fields: *

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

Interior Design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

Procurement Procurement is the method of discovering and agreeing to terms and purchasing goods, Service (economics), services, or other works from an external source, often with the use of a tendering or competitive bidding process. When a government agenc ...

Structural Engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

Civil Engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Building Commissioning Building commissioning (Cx) is an integrated, systematic process to ensure, through documented verification, that all building systems perform interactively according to the "Design Intent". The commissioning process establishes and documents the ...

Presidents

Rogers & Whitestone's work in Louisville (1853–1880)

Partial list of work by D.X. Murphy & Brother in Louisville (1880–1933)

Awards

* Luckett & Farley has been awarded one of Kentucky's best places to work in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. * In 2012, it was named one of Louisville's best places to work by ''

The Courier-Journal ''The Courier-Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), is the highest circulation newspaper in Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett and billed as "Part of the ''USA Today'' Ne ...

''. * In 2014, Luckett & Farley was awarded the 2014 ESOP Company of the Year by the Ohio/Kentucky ESOP Association Chapter

References

External links

*
Google Map of Henry Whitestone and DX Murphy buildings in LouisvilleTimeline of Firm History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luckett and Farley Architecture firms based in Kentucky Companies based in Louisville, Kentucky Design companies established in 1853 1853 establishments in Kentucky American companies established in 1853