Louis R. Pounders, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, received a BA from Rhodes College in 1968, and later received the Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been active in the Committee on Design for 12 years and is the 2009 chair.

He worked for I. M. Pei & Partners in New York City and Boston, working on such projects as the Choate School Fine Arts Center in Connecticut and the Christian Science Church Headquarters in Boston, both of which received National AIA Honor Awards for Architecture. While working in New York, he co-authored a design entry for the Centre Pompidou Arts Center competition in Paris, France. Of the 699 entries worldwide, his scheme was one of 20 selected for Second Place recognition.

In 1972, he returned to Memphis to join the architectural firm of Gassner Nathan & Browne and became a partner in 1980. Francis Gassner, FAIA, was one of the founders of the Committee on Design and introduced Louis to COD. In 1993, Mr. Pounders joined an old friend to create Williamson Pounders Architects (WPA). WPA received over 40 national, regional, state and local design awards and its projects were published widely in magazines, books and professional journals. WPA projects include the Tunica RiverPark in Mississippi, which won a 2004 National AISC Design Award, the St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Kentucky, which received a National AIA Religious Art and Architecture Award, and Ballet Memphis which received an American Architecture Award.

Mr. Pounders headed the Twenty-five Year Award nominations task group for AIA COD and presented the award-winning project each year at the National AIA Convention. Twice he has served as Chairman of the AIA Tennessee Design Awards program and in 1986, he was recognized by AIA Tennessee with its Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the AIA College of Fellows and in 2004 was appointed to the National Board of Peer Reviewers under the GSA Design Excellence Program. He was a founding member of the Memphis Design Center and an Honorary Professor of Architecture at the University of Tennessee. He has been an outspoken advocate for the preservation of landmarks of modern American architecture.

He has served on the National AIA Gold Medal/Firm Award Advisory Jury, the National AIA Small Projects Awards Jury, the National AIA Healthcare Design Awards Jury, the National Centria Awards Jury as well as juries for AIA Western Mountain Region, Northwest & Pacific Region, AIA Alaska, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Orleans, AIA Memphis and Memphis Heritage. In 2008 he chaired the AIA Awards Task Group which nominates jurors for all national AIA awards programs.

Pounders is a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni/ae Council, the Rhodes College Red & Black Society and the Board of Trustees of the Memphis College of Art. He is Professional Advisor for the Ruffin Chair of Classical Art & Architecture at Rhodes College and, in 2005, he was named a Distinguished Alumni of the college.

In 2006, WPA joined forces with ANF Architects in Memphis where Pounders is currently designing a new Library for Southwest Tennessee Community College, a new Fine Arts Building for the University of Tennessee at Martin and the Alex Haley Interpretive Center in Henning, TN for the Tennessee State Historical Commission.

Learn more about the AIA Committee on Design.