Waggonner & Ball

Waggonner & Ball is a New Orleans-based architecture and environment firm, located where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. We see architecture as a way of understanding the world. Since 1970, Waggonner & Ball and its predecessor firm have lived and worked in New Orleans - a deeply rooted place with a rich history, but also a port city with a constant exchange of materials and culture. From this perspective, we see New Orleans - a challenging environment on the front line of climate change where a holistic approach to design is essential - as both our home and our point of departure. Our work spans a range of scales, from buildings to landscapes, from cities to watersheds. Our work also spans a range of places, from New Orleans to Norfolk, from Beijing to Jakarta. No matter where we work, we draw on the local and particular while engaging our global context of a changing climate, precarious economic conditions, and powerful new technologies. We work hard to align cutting-edge best practices with underlying deep structures of place. We collaborate with leading design and engineering firms around the globe to create plans and projects that are ambitious, detailed, and actionable. A broad international network of partners enriches and informs our practice on a daily basis. Utilizing a workshop-based design process, our collaborative approach synthesizes knowledge and insights from diverse stakeholders. Preference in our practice has been given to work that requires a long-term perspective, and we pride ourselves in maintaining a high rate of repeat clients.