Lafayette is well-known for its gastronomy, traditional music, and world-class celebrations. It is steeped in classical Cajun and Creole culture and is known as “the Hub City” because of its pivotal role in the Gulf Coast’s oil and gas industry. It is a thriving, sprawling metropolis with much to offer visitors and residents alike.
There are many reasons why people live in this city. If you’re planning to move into Lafayette, the list below includes the best residential architects to bring your dream home to fruition.
Trahan Architecture & Planning
1700 Kaliste Saloom Rd Ste 301, Lafayette, LA 70508
Trahan Architecture + Planning constructs custom residential architectural house plans that are unique for each client and their property. As a licensed residential architect, the firm aims to provide every client with the best customer experience possible.
Russell G. Trahan, the owner of Trahan Architecture + Planning, is a licensed architect who graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Architecture. His accolades include being recognized among the 2019 List of Louisiana’s Top Rated Local Architects and having received the Houzz Customer Service Award in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Russell is a member of One Acadiana, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. From 2016 to 2017, he served his community as President of the Kiwanis of Acadiana-Lafayette Chapter.
Emery McClure Architecture
228 Cherry St. Lafayette, LA 70506
Emery McClure Architecture, founded in 1996, is a Lafayette-based architecture and design firm that contributes to the region’s distinct built and social environments. Though it focuses on single-family home construction, it also constructs commercial buildings, museums, and non-architecture-related projects such as paintings and interior design.
Emery McClure’s built work, writings, and design speculations have appeared in various books and magazines, including professional, scholarly, and popular press. The firm has received multiple peer-reviewed honors, including AIA and Architectural Record recognition. Its sustainable urban design work has also received design awards, has been published in Places Magazine, is included in the books Interior Architecture Theory Reader and Writing Urbanisms: A Design Reader, and has been included in the 2006 and 2010 Venice Biennale.
SO Studio
436 E Vermilion St Ste. 103, Lafayette, LA 70501
Stephen Ortego established SO Studio in 2016 after serving in the Louisiana House of Representatives. It is an architecture and urban design firm headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana, centered on innovative designs appropriate for their time and place. It values its historical buildings and specializes in historic preservation.
Stephen is a LEED accredited professional and an active board member of the US Green Building Council, Louisiana Chapter. SO Studio applies its expertise in urban buildings and landforms to the community by developing master plans for new neighborhoods and infill projects. It also incorporates its expertise into its buildings through interior design projects for new construction and renovations. Louisiana Life Magazine and VIE Magazine have previously recognized and featured the firm’s work.
Sabatier Architecture
601 General Mouton Avenue, Lafayette, LA 70501
Sabatier Architecture is a residential architecture company located in Lafayette, Louisiana. Its office is heavily involved in a large number of projects across Louisiana. It offers services that its clients value because of its collaborative design approach. Its works are well-known for their designs in the Caribbean, French, American Colonial, Creole, Acadian, Spanish, and Neoclassical Revival styles.
It is led by Bennet Sabatier, who started his career nearly thirty years ago, after graduating from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Bennett decided to open his own office in Lafayette shortly after returning from Dallas, where he worked for a renowned residential architecture firm. Then he rose to prominence as a designer of homes in Traditional Neighborhood Developments throughout Louisiana.
Zaunbrecher Design
548 Jefferson Street, Lafayette, LA 70501
Zaunbrecher Design is a husband and wife team specializing in creating unique projects for its clients. Gil Zaunbrecher, AIA, and Tanya Zaunbrecher, ASID, AAIA, NCIDQ founded Zaunbrecher Design in 2004 to concentrate on residential design while also working at an institutional design firm. Gil and Tanya are architecture graduates of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In addition to Residential Design, criminal justice design, commercial design, and commercial development are all areas of the couple’s expertise. Code and zoning investigations, Interior Design, Conceptual 3D modeling, and Interior Branding Packages are among the firm’s other specialties.
Since its founding, the firm has expanded its services to include full-service architecture and interior design. It has worked on a wide range of commercial and institutional projects during the design and construction phases.
Parish Architecture
307A Heymann Blvd. Lafayette, LA 70503
Parish Architecture, established in 2018, is a small firm that has a significant impact on the lives of the people it serves. Its innovative design takes current technologies and solutions into account, resulting in more imaginative and better-built environments. In addition to specializing in single-family home construction, the company performs historical renovations and home additions.
David has crafted, managed, and partnered on several complex projects. Previous projects include elder and health care facilities, banking, and college facilities, energy service facilities, computer research facilities, multimodal transportation centers, casino-hotel complexes, and detention facilities.
Parish Architecture operates under the direction of David Frank Robichaux, AIA as its principal architect. With competency in New Jersey, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana, David has maximized a profound understanding of best practices in both firm and project management, allowing the firm to become one of the most successful in the country for its size.
Gossen Architects
220 La Rue France, Lafayette, LA, 70508
Gossen Architects was established in 1988 by Kevin Gossen. Its adaptability in design ranges from traditional southern-style homes to transitional modern commercial work. To strive for consistency in quality and accuracy, the firm employs four architects. Because the expertise of its staff varies, its designs prove exceptional and noticeable.
Under Kevin Gossen’s oversight, the press covered the firm’s notable projects. Among these publications are Discover Lafayette, Luxury Homes News, The Daily Advertiser, and The Advocate. For Gossen Architects, it begins with an initial design, which includes hand-drawn floor plans and elevations, laying purpose, and architectural form. The preliminary sketches then become detailed construction documents. The final construction document illustrations comprise plans, sections, elevations, and 3D perspective renderings. During the construction phase, the company works along with the team, by monitoring the project and working with the various disciplines in aiding in the execution of the final design.
Quad 5 Architecture LLC
1113 Kim Drive, Lafayette, LA
Quad 5 Architecture was founded in 2016 and specializes in constructing single-family homes for clients in Lafayette. Tad Sebastian, AIA, the firm’s owner and principal architect, enjoys building contemporary projects that improve each client’s quality of life.
Tad has spent the last twenty years pursuing his devotion to architecture, designing everything from custom homes to museums and university buildings. While in high school, he fell in love with construction and design while doing restoration work for contracting firms and working in hardware and building supply stores. Years later, while working in marketing at the Aquarium of the Americas during its construction, Tad’s passion for architecture was reignited, prompting him to pursue a degree in architecture. He graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Science in marketing in 1989 and a Bachelor of Science in architecture in 1998.
