LARRY ALBERT

A R C H I T E C T, E N T R E P R E N E U R , H U M A N I TA R I A N

R ESPECTS THE P AST ,

BUILDS FOR THE
FUTURE STORY BY ROBYN JACKSON
PHOTOS COURTESY ALBERT & ASSOCIATES

30 • south mississippi scene


Architecture became Albert’s passion when he was a student at
Hattiesburg High School in 1970 and took a drafting class that would
change his life.
L Larry Albert has emerged as
one of Mississippi’s top archi-
tects, thanks to his deft touch
at combining traditional, icon-
ic design with modern aesthet-
ics.
“Larry is very important,
he’s done a lot of outstanding
work,” said Ken P’Pool,
deputy state historic preserva-
tion officer with the
Mississippi Department of
Archives and History. “We
work with a lot of fine archi-
tects, but I don’t know if I’ve
ever met a finer individual
than Larry. A lot of people
probably don’t know how
much free work he does for
these projects.”
Albert brings a sense of
place to his designs, whether
he’s restoring an old building
or designing something new
and modern, said Betsy
Rowell, executive director of
the Historic Hattiesburg
Downtown Association.
“He builds buildings that
are people places, that we can
be proud of for generations,”
Rowell said. “He’s able to cap-
ture something with his build-
ings.”
She points to the contem-
porary, cutting edge design of
the Mississippi Crafts Center,
which sits next to the Natchez
Trace in Ridgeland, as an
example.”It’s a modern build-
HATTIESBURG CONVENTION CENTER
ing, but it becomes part of the
land. It becomes part of the
Natchez Trace. You look out
the back of it and you just feel
the history of the state.”
Hattiesburg-based Albert
& Associates has done a num-
ber of high-profile, award-win-
ning restorations, such as the
Perry County Courthouse, and
new projects, including the
Mississippi School of the Arts
Student Life Center in
Brookhaven, the Library of
Hattiesburg, Petal and Forrest
County, the Lake Terrace
Convention Center and the
Trent Lott Center, which is
under construction at the
University of Southern
south mississippi scene • 31
TRENT LOTT CENTER
 LAMAR COUNTY COURTHOUSE
Mississippi. But it’s his restora-
tion of Beauvoir, the last home
of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis, that could be
his crowning glory. The Biloxi
landmark, which was built in
1852 and purchased by Davis 14
years later, was almost washed
away by Hurricane Katrina on
Aug. 29, 2005, and is one of the
few historical structures on the
Mississippi Gulf Coast to sur-
vive the storm.
“That’s a very difficult proj-
ect, but Larry and his staff have
done an excellent job,” P’Pool
said. “It was obvious, when we
saw there was extreme damage,
we knew it would be a massive
project.”
Albert had started restoring
Beauvoir in 1990, doing the
work bit by bit as money
became available. “We had just
a little more painting and it
would have been finished,” he
said.
He was one of the first non-
emergency workers allowed
down to the beachfront in the
days after Katrina.
“I went on Sept. 9. The 8th
was the first day my company
got power back. The governor’s
office faxed us a pass. I remem-
ber telling my wife if there was
anything left, it will be saved.”
Albert was shocked by the
damage. Five of the seven out-
buildings on the 52-acre prop-
erty, including the cottages that
flanked the raised main house,
and the old hospital that had
built for Confederate veterans
and was later turned into a
museum, were washed away.
The main house remained, but
the wrap-around porches and
graceful front staircase were
gone. Eight inches of water
inside the main house had left
mold and stripped away paint
from the handpainted wall
murals. Irreplaceable artifacts,
including some of Davis’ manu-
scripts, were swept back into
PERRY COUNTY COURTHOUSE
the sound by the storm surge.
“I was devastated,” Albert
recalls. “I literally was crying to
see how much devastation there
was.”
But instead of giving up,
Albert said he got his steam up
and got to work rebuilding the
antebellum structure and
repainting the murals. Workers
installed stainless steel braces
and rods to make the structure
even stronger. He said the $4
million project, which has got-
ten national news coverage,
should be completed by the end
of the year.
“It’s going to be nicer and
more authentic than it’s been in
my lifetime,” Albert said. “We
made it back like when
Jefferson Davis lived in it.”
Architecture became
Albert’s passion when he was a
student at Hattiesburg High
School in 1970 and took a draft-
ing class that would change his
life.
south mississippi scene • 33
personalities: larry albertcontributors
“My mom wanted me to be
a doctor,” said Albert, who was
even president of the Pre-Med
Club at Hattiesburg High. But
when his drafting teacher told
him that he’d never seen any-
one catch on as fast as Albert
had, he began to envision a
career as an architect.
“It was a God-given gift,”
Albert said, adding that he was
allowed to teach art classes to
juniors and seniors at the high
school even though he was still
a student there himself.
Surprisingly, his classmates
respected him. “At the time, it
all seemed very natural,” he
said, chuckling about the
improbability of such a thing
happening today.
Albert studied art at the
MS CRAFT CENTER
PHOTO BY ALAN KARCHMER
HATTIESBURG PUBLIC LIBRARY
University of Southern
Mississippi for a year but his
mother encouraged him to
become an architect so he could
make a living. About that time
Mississippi State University
opened its School of
Architecture, and Albert
became the first student to earn
an architecture degree from
MSU, in 1978.
Albert served an internship
from 1978-81 with Jackson-
based Barlow and Plunkett,
which was one of the largest
architectural firms in
Mississippi, and then moved to
Houston, Texas, to work for
another firm for four years
before opening his own firm.
Eventually, though, he decided
to return to his hometown of
WOODLAND HILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Hattiesburg, although his wife,
Gail, and children were not so
happy about leaving the big
city and all its attractions.
“I dragged my wife and
children back,” Albert said.
“They loved Houston. They
thought we had moved to the
podunkest town.”
In Houston, Albert was
working on “glitzy glass tow-
ers,” but he wanted to restore
historic buildings and design
new structures that reflected
the past, and opened Albert &
Associates in 1995. It now has
13 full-time employees, includ-
ing senior architect Chris
Robinson, construction admin-
istrators Jimmy Stewart and
Randy McCaffery, project archi-
tect Sarah Newton, landscape
HATTIESBURG, MS
designer Sally Hughes, design
visualization artist Bo Howard,
intern architect Sean Bensley,
and office manager Janet Wade.
“We have the best talent in
the state,” Albert said, “and I
think our track record speaks
for itself.”
One of the most obvious
examples of his design philoso-
phy is the new Hattiesburg
library on Hardy Street, which
won the Governor’s Award for
Excellence in the Arts for its
design in 1997. The curving,
double staircase at the back of
the main room of that building
is a replica of the stairs on the
outside of the original library
on Main Street, which is now
the Hattiesburg Cultural
Center. The massive red tile
roof and huge, arched windows
recall the old library, and the
Mississippi Tower on the front
right corner pays homage to the
bell tower at Bay Street
Presbyterian Church.
“I spent a lot of time in the
old building and had a love for
it,” he said.
BEAUVOIR, BILOXI MS
“He’s an excellent architect
in new design,” P’Pool said.
“He’s very sensitive in picking
up on icons in the community
that have meaning, so there’s a
certain continuity of design.
These are projects that are total-
ly new design, but that fit their
need in the community.”
Hattiesburg’s Lake Terrace
Convention Center is another
example of this, Rowell said. “If
you look at that building, you
see elements of buildings all
over Hattiesburg. He really cap-
tures the community.”
Albert said you can see a
rendering of the dome of the
USM Administration Building,
which was designed by Coast
architect Vinson Smith, near the
entrance to the convention cen-
ter. The iconic design had a big
influence on him.
“I had just finished the ren-
ovation of the Aubrey Lucas
Administration Building,”
Albert said. “The profile of the
dome is on the front of the con-
vention center. I have respect
for those old heritage icons.”
SAENGER THEATRE
HATTIEBURG, MS
The Trent Lott Center at
USM also includes iconic ele-
ments and classic architectural
design, but Albert said he is
“modernizing the heck out of
it.”
Albert, who has served two
terms as president of the
Hattiesburg Downtown
Association, was named Best
Design Professional in 2007 by
the Mississippi Main Street
Association because of his work
restoring several buildings in
downtown Hattiesburg, includ-
ing the 1905 Bufkin-Cadenhead
Building, which houses his
firm, and the former Roseberry
Piano House, where wife Gail’s
A Gallery is now located.
“He has been a huge sup-
porter of downtown develop-
ment,” Rowell said. “He really
is committed. He’s terrific to
work with. When he’s commit-
ted to something, he’s passion-
ate about it.”
Albert said his favorite proj-
ect is the Salvation Army
chapel in Hattiesburg, but he is
also proud of the atrium of the
 THAD COCHRAN CENTER
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MS
PHOTO BY HUBERT WORLEY
Trent Lott Center.
“It’s one of those spaces
that’s real simple in that it’s
circular, but it’s got a sus-
pended glass staircase.”
With the building still
under construction, he’s
only seen it come together
in bits and pieces. The ter-
razzo tile floor has been
laid, he said, but it’s now
covered by plywood to pro-
tect it as construction con-
tinues. “It’s like seeing each
little piece of it come
alive,” he said.
One of Albert &
Associates’ next big proj-
ects is the renovation of the
old Hattiesburg High
School on Main Street,
which was gutted by an
arsonist’s fire in 2007. It
OFFICE OF ALBERT & ASSOCIATES
HATTIEBURG, MS
SALVATION ARMY CHAPEL
HATTIESBURG, MS
was slated to become the
home of the Southern Miss
art department. All that
remains now is the brick
shell of the building.
P’Pool calls that project
“Herculean,” but adds that
it can be done. “Those who
really understand historic
buildings and how they’re
put together, it’s not a
process that we back up
from at all. Larry’s that
kind of person.”
Rowell said she has no
doubt Albert will get the
job done, and that the
building will inspire pride
in Hattiesburg residents.
“He doesn’t build a
building for a few years, he
builds it for a hundred
years,” Rowell said.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING