Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers

Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, Jr., and Arthur Quentin Davis formed Curtis and Davis in 1947. They knew each other as classmates at the Tulane University School of Architecture, having graduated one year apart.[1] Curtis approached Davis about forming the firm,[4] at a time when they perceived that the city of New Orleans was ripe for an infusion of modernist architecture.[5] Revivalist designs had dominated New Orleans architecture in the years leading up to the founding of Curtis and Davis. In the immediate post-war period, there was significant demand for new construction in New Orleans. For these reasons, their earliest projects were in New Orleans.[6]

Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, designed by Curtis & Davis in collaboration with S. Wilson, as seen in 2017

In Curtis's autobiographical account of the founding of Curtis and Davis, published posthumously, Curtis stated that the founding of the firm was a "totally casual undertaking". With little thought, Davis accepted Curtis's proposal to create the firm. The two founders then capitalized the firm for USD 500 and rented office space on Union Street in the New Orleans Central Business District.[7]^(p2)

As the firm grew, Curtis and Davis employed a significant number of associate architects. Some achieved the status of partner. By 1960, the firm had a considerable number of international design projects underway and had opened satellite offices in New York, London, Berlin, and Los Angeles. It employed 40 people at its New Orleans office. Its headquarters at the time was in the Caribe Building, also a Curtis and Davis design, located at 2475 Canal Street in New Orleans.[6] As part of the firm's successful expansion, Curtis and Davis employed a marketing director (then called a "job-getter") and instituted a public relations program.[7]^(p28)

Typical of architectural practice,[8] Curtis and Davis often collaborated with other architects and designers, especially for large projects.[7] An example was the collaboration between Curtis and Davis and architect Sam Wilson on the design of the Royal Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans.[9]

By 1971, Curtis and Davis housed their headquarters in an historic and renovated sugar warehouse at 111 Iberville Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.[7]^(p28)

Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis Jr.

School of Architecture at Tulane University

Curtis was born on November 29, 1917, in Auburn, Alabama USA. Friends called him "Buster". Curtis completed a bachelor's degree in architecture at Tulane University in 1940. Subsequently he served in the United States Navy as a lieutenant commander in World War II.[10] His military tour of duty included graduate level studies in the naval architecture program at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. This gave Curtis some training in the field of engineering.[6]

Curts was for a time the president of International House in New Orleans. From 1978 until his death, he was a member of the architectural review panel for the United States Federal Reserve.[10]

Curtis died on June 10, 1997, at Baptist Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, of cancer. He is interred at Metairie Lake Lawn Cemetery in New Orleans.[10]

Curtis's father, Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, Sr., was the first dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture.[11] Curtis's son David Curtis is also an architect in New Orleans.[12]

Following the sale of Curtis and Davis, Curtis formed his own architectural firm, Nathaniel Curtis, FAIA, Architect, in July 1978.[13]^(p53)

Arthur Quentin Davis

Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans Arena (to the right) as seen in 2011

Davis was born and raised in New Orleans. He earned a bachelors degree in architecture at Tulane University in 1942 and a masters degree in architecture at Harvard University. There he studied under Walter Gropius who was a leader in the International Style of architectural design.[1] Davis then worked briefly for architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen in Michigan.[6] He expressed the idea that significant buildings should be enduring and not simply designed to last 30 years or less.[13]

At age 38, Davis became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, then the youngest person so honored.[5]

Following the acquisition of Curtis and Davis by Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall in 1978, Davis continued to work with Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall until 1998. At that time, he created a new architectural firm, known as Arthur Q. Davis FAIA and Associates. Their projects included the New Orleans Arena.[4]

Davis was the first chairman of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He was the father of Quint Davis, who is the producer of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Arthur Q. Davis died in New Orleans on November 30, 2011, at age 91.[3]

Curtis and Davis architectural designs emphasized modernist aesthetics while making use of advances in materials and technologies. This included extensive use of the then-new technique of lift slab construction. Buildings designed by Curtis and Davis included ones for purposes that are commercial, educational, religious, recreational, residential, and even penal.[1]

Caribe Building, Headquarters of Curtis & Davis at one time. The sunbreakers are evident in the design

The design style combined regionalism with functional characteristics in which they strived to show that the building belonged where it was built. In this respect, the firm's designs made use of courtyards, arcades, sunbreakers (brise soleil), and cross-ventilation, all being design characteristics long used in the subtropical climate of New Orleans. Many of these same characteristics can be seen, for example, in designs of plantation houses of the Antebellum South. While the designs took advantage of the latest in metal, glass, and concrete materials, they made use of local materials when possible, fitting the buildings into local landscape.[6] An architectural historian observed that the designs sometimes reflected a fusion of Louisiana Creole tradition with the Bauhaus style, bringing about an architectural flair that is characteristic of the New Orleans area.[2]

The modernist style of Curtis and Davis was at times poorly received in New Orleans where there was local pride in their historical styles of architectural design.[14][15] In the early years of the firm, the local resistance to modernist style resulted in Curtis and Davis missing out on certain architectural design projects.[6]

An early project of Curtis and Davis was the Municipal Court House and Precinct Jail on Rampart Street in New Orleans. The building was demolished years later. They designed the main branch of the New Orleans Public Library. The exterior has a three-dimensional aluminum screen surrounding the exterior of the two top floors of the three story building, shading the glass walls from the intense subtropical sunlight. The interior of the building has a flexible floor plan with glass interior walls. The building remains in use as a library as of 2020.[16]

In 1954, Curtis and Davis designed the Caribe Building which was to serve as the firm's headquarters. A distinctive feature of the building is the brise soleil created by Moorish-style terra cotta tiles that form a screen around much of the exterior of the building. These are situated three feet out from the building walls. In this way, workers in the building could make use of the building's windows but still be protected from the heat and glare of the sun in the oppressive subtropical climate. This design is estimated to result in a one-third savings in cooling costs of the building.[17]

The Rivergate Convention Center is on the lower left in this aerial view.

In 1957, Curtis and Davis designed the Benjamin Franklin Institute which serves as the university medical center at the Free University of Berlin. Construction was complete in 1968. The building features façades in raw concrete and is considered an example of brutalist architecture.[18]

In 1964 Curtis and Davis completed its design for the Rivergate Convention Center in New Orleans. A particularly distinctive feature was the roof of the building, fabricated of pressed concrete in six barrel shapes, giving an appearance of undulation. It was a functional design in that it extended 253 feet over the main exhibit hall. In that way, the main exhibit hall was free of obstructions. The Rivergate Convention Center had 130,000 square feet of exhibit space with seating for up to 17,000 people, in addition to smaller meeting rooms. The roof design is reported to be suggestive of the flow of water in the nearby Mississippi River.[19] The Rivergate Convention Center was demolished in 1995, as it was replaced by the larger New Orleans Morial Convention Center, with the land on which the Rivergate was located becoming Harrah's Casino.[10]

United States Embassy (Saigon)

Following the 1965 car-bombing of the United States Embassy in Vietnam,[20] Curtis and Davis received a commission at that time to design a new embassy for the United States, in the city then known as Saigon, South Vietnam. As the commitment of the United States to Vietnam deepened, the original design of Curtis and Davis was significantly expanded by the architectural firm Adrian Wilson and Associates.[21] The building opened in 1967.[22] The roof of the building subsequently was the site of the helicopter evacuation after the Fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

IBM Building, Pittsburgh

United Steelworkers Building, Pittsburgh (originally the IBM Building)

The IBM corporation was on a building spree in the early 1960s. The company commissioned Curtis and Davis to construct a building for IBM's Pittsburgh operations. This was the firm's first high-rise design, being 13 stories tall. The building opened in 1963, at which time it received accolades for its architectural design. There is a central load-bearing core and load bearing exterior walls. The building is encased in a steel lattice-work, consisting of five types of steel. The interior of the building was designed with an open, flexible floor plan. The IBM Building was a forerunner of the design for tall buildings at the time. The building remains in service and has served as the headquarters of the United Steelworkers Union, following IBM's departure.[26]

Curtis and Davis designed other buildings for IBM, including ones in Burlington, Vermont, Jackson, Mississippi, and Shreveport, Louisiana.[13]

In the 1950s, the newly opened Municipal Court House and Precinct Jail included a nude sculpture by Enrique Alférez. Curtis and Davis had designed the building with the sculpture in mind. Local people, especially parishioners at nearby Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Church, objected to the nude art. As a result, the sculpture was removed and subsequently lost for many years.[7]^(p6) The sculpture, known as "The Family", was retrieved and became part of an Alférez collection in 2015.[32]

In 1974, Curtis and Davis allegedly donated $15,625 in political contributions in exchange for a half million dollars worth of contracts.[33]

The 1995 demolition of the Rivergate Convention Center was controversial because it was demolished in favor of construction of a new building considered architecturally inferior but resulted in construction jobs that put local politicians in a favorable light. Preservationists believed that the Rivergate Convention Center could have been easily repurposed at significantly lower cost.[13]

By the 1970s, as a result of the economic downturn related to the 1973 oil crisis, Curtis and Davis focused on developing new design projects in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. Despite several promising leads, none resulted in new construction.[7]^(p53)

Early in the history of the firm, both Curtis and Davis worked together closely. As the firm expanded, they worked separately, ultimately resulting in the emergence of differing ideas between them about the firm's management. With the financial effects of economic downturn in the mid-1970s, Davis proposed selling the firm, to which Curtis agreed. The sale to Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall resulted in the end of Curtis and Davis as a firm.[7]^(p53)

Curtis and Davis won a significant number of architectural awards. Among these were several Progressive Architecture Awards, including the 1957 award for their design of the New Public Library Main Branch, for risk-taking designs that advance the practice of architecture.[16] The firm received local, regional, and national awards from the American Institute of Architects. Other awards included an award for the Top Manufacturing Plant in 1969 for the Westinghouse Electric Co. plant design in Tampa, Florida, given by Modern Manufacturing Magazine, and awards from the New York Association of Architects, the New Jersey Association of Architects, the Louisiana Architecture Association, the Vieux Carré Commission, the National Conference on Religious Architecture, Institutions Magazine, and others. A complete list of awards for Curtis and Davis is available.[13]

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art ran an exhibition on the architectural achievements of Arthur Q. Davis in 2009, including his time with Curtis and Davis.[34]

• 
  Downward view of the interior atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans as seen in 2012
• 
  Main branch of the New Orleans Public Library
• 
  New Orleans Public Library Mid-City Branch, originally the Automotive Life Insurance Building (photo courtesy of Infrogmation)
• 
  Benjamin Franklin Institute at the Free University of Berlin, as seen in April 2020
• 
  St Frances Cabrini Church as demolition commenced in 2007 (photo courtesy of Infrogmation)
• 
  New Orleans Marriott Hotel
• 
  Aerial view of Washington Corrections Center
• 
  James V. Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C.

• Registration form for the Curtis House with the National Park Service as part of the National Registry of Historic Places
• Curtis and Davis Project Photographs housed at the Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries.
• Nathaniel C. Curtis, Sr. Drawings, housed at the Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Libraries.

• Davis, Arthur Q.; Gruber, J. Richard, It Happened by Design: The Life and Work of Arthur Q. Davis, University of Mississippi Press, 2009, ISBN 9781604732658.
• Curtis, Nathaniel, My Life in Architecture, University of New Orleans, 2002.