2021 Gumbo final - Book - Page 102
102
julianwhite mural
Q
uiet, quick-witted, honest, straightforward and
the type of person “you couldn’t bullshit—” these
are just some of the words former students and
colleagues of Julian White— LSU’s first Black faculty member
and respected Baton Rouge architect— used to describe
him.
A mural of White in LSU’s Art and Design building was
completed in March by Robert Dafford, an artist globally
known for his murals. The painting depicts White leading
a march of faculty and students, representing all the doors
White opened for those behind him as the University’s first
Black professor.
Before becoming Louisiana’s second Black licensed
architect, White was required to take the state license
architecture exam in the 1960s. He was segregated from the
white test takers.
The room White was assigned to take the test in would
later become his office when he joined LSU’s Department of
Architecture in 1971, where he would leave immeasurable
impacts on the thousands of students he would teach over
his 33-year long educational career.
White retired from LSU in 2003 and passed away in 2011
after a battle with cancer. The impact White left on the Baton
Rouge and LSU community still echoes in the memories of
those students and colleagues who knew him.
Architecture professor Michael Desmond worked with
White at LSU.
“The thing I think I remember the most about him, or
the thing that stands out the most, was just how forthright
and honest he always seemed,” Desmond said. “It seemed
like that was just the character of him, just an outstanding
human being.”
Architecture professor Tom Sofranko worked with White
on small architectural projects in the Baton Rouge area for
over nine years.
“I can’t tell you how many times we would go to lunch
or go to the coffee shop, then we’d get in the car [and] he’s
doing some calculation in his head and he’s like ‘oh wait,’”
Sofranko said. “We’d go back into the store because the
cashier had miscounted and given him an extra dime. He did
it enough so that it was something I teased him about.”
As a student and mentee of White’s, Lisa Nice said
White was different from her other architecture teachers.
“You couldn’t BS him, he could see through the BS,” Nice
said. “Some professors tended to eat it up, some of the more
design-oriented professors. He didn’t buy it because he dealt
with real-world architecture and real-world problems.”
White worked as a professor whilst maintaining his
architectural practice in Baton Rouge, giving him a teaching
style other professors couldn’t match.
“He always spoke from experience,” Desmond said. “He
was always very direct and straightforward and I guess you
could say pragmatic. He was always down to earth. He knew
architecture from both sides.
White was ahead of his time as an architect. Sofranko said
he and White worked together at a time when computer
software was becoming an increasingly popular tool to use.
“I think many people in his position would say ‘Oh that
new software is for the young folks,’ but Julian wanted to dig
in and be on top of it,” Sofranko said.
Desmond said a building White designed in the 70s, which
was at the time a medical clinic, had a lasting impression on
him.
“It’s a modern building, kind of striking building, but it’s
also very unassuming in a way,” Desmond said. “When you
go into it, there were large beautiful plate-glass windows
looking into the landscaping around it.”
Desmond said the healthcare industry has recently begun
to quantify how a patient’s access to the natural world— a
patient being able to see green things out of their hospital
room for example— has a quantifiable effect on how much
painkiller they require and how quickly they recover.
“It’s a burgeoning field, this evidence-based design they
call it in terms of healthcare,” Desmond said. “Julian was way
ahead of the curve on that. I remember going into Julian’s
building in the early ‘90s and remembering how pleasant
it was to sit in the waiting room and wait for the doctor to
come and how calm you felt. It was forward-thinking. Not a
lot of people were thinking about that in the mid-70s.”
Sofranko recounted that White was passionate about
jazz and was knowledgeable in several areas outside of
architecture. Derryl Didier was a student and colleague of
White’s. He said White was an outstanding and ethical man.
“He didn’t want to be a Black architect— he didn’t want to
be a white architect— he wanted to be an architect,” Didier
said. “He would really get upset if somebody brought that
up.
“‘I just want to be an architect. I just want to be a great
architect— I always really, really respected him for that.”