On the Boards

Many Waters — Wallace, Louisiana

Nick Dubuc, AIA, with the team behind The Descendants Project at Many Waters

Nick and I both spent time this month at Many Waters in Wallace, meeting with the team behind The Descendants Project as the house moves through restoration. It’s a place with a remarkable story: built in 1806 and later moved to its current site, the former plantation home was purchased by sisters Jo and Joy Banner in 2004, and when its history came into focus they realized it was tied to their own family’s past. They renamed it Many Waters — after the Chitimacha, “people of many waters,” members of whom were enslaved alongside their ancestors — and today it serves as the headquarters for The Descendants Project.

We’re serving as the architects for the historic preservation and adaptive reuse of the building — giving a structure that carries this much history a sound future and a new purpose. Being trusted with that is a real honor, and one we don’t take lightly.

Learn more about their work at The Descendants Project.

On the Web

The Five Books I’d Give a Young Architect

Watch on TikTok →

A young architect wrote in worried he was stagnating. My honest answer: the fact that you’re even asking is the surest sign you never will. In this one I share where I’d point him first — the ICAA — and the five books I’d put in his hands, every one of which I’ve read myself. If you’re building your own library, it’s a good place to start.

Around Town

Chasing A. Hays Town’s Colors

Left: A. Hays Town on the cover of The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town (photographs by Philip Gould). Right: Kevin in the very same doorway.

We spent time this month at A. Hays Town’s own house, working with Helm Paint Company to register his actual paint colors — the exact palette a master used in the place he knew best. If that doorway looks familiar, it should: it’s the same one Mr. Town himself stands in on the cover of The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town. Standing there was a quiet thrill.

Town was a national recipient of the Arthur Ross Award for his lifetime of achievement, and the way he captured the flavor of Louisiana architecture is exactly why the ICAA Louisiana chapter wants his work preserved. This is part of something with them I can’t say too much about just yet — but you can watch us document the colors here:

Watch on TikTok →

On the Book-Signing Trail

Are You a Rhinoceros? at Barnes & Noble, Elmwood — New Orleans

Are You a Rhinoceros? has been out and about this summer, too. We had a wonderful signing at Barnes & Noble in Elmwood (New Orleans), followed most recently by Covington — thank you to everyone who came out to say hello and pick up a copy. It never gets old getting to talk with readers in person.

Coming Up

Book Signings — You’re Invited

More signings on the calendar. If you’d still like a signed copy, come say hello — here’s where to find me next:

Saturday, August 1 — Barnes & Noble, Metairie | 1:00–3:00 PM
Saturday, August 15 — Barnes & Noble, Mandeville | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Saturday, August 29 — Barnes & Noble, Harvey | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Sunday, September 20 — Barnes & Noble, Perkins Rowe, Baton Rouge | 12:00–2:00 PM

“ A color is never just a color — it’s a memory someone chose to keep. That’s what we’re really preserving: not just the walls, but the choices and the people that made a place home. — Kevin Harris