DESIGING A DYNASTY The old adage, “the cobbler’s children go unshod,” may ring true, but one thing is certain—at least here at the LSU College of Art & Design: the children of artists and designers learn to find what they love and love what they do; many become artists and designers themselves. Creativity spawns creativity. The art of making, the efforts of labor becoming tangible realities, being able to say “I made that” inspires and influences family members to do the same. More than creativity and the act of making, there’s another quality that artists and designers pass down from one generation to the next: passion. The individuals featured here were never pushed or coerced to enter their professions. In fact, parents encouraged their children to explore and exhaust all options. Many yearned to keep their children close while insisting that they consider internships and careers away from home. Travel, they advised. Explore every possibility from small town to big city, corporate firm to boutique office, residential to commercial design. As architect Buddy Ragland said to his daughter, Grace, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
THE RAGLANDS Similar but Different
Marvin “Buddy” Ragland is a partner and architect at Coleman Partners Architects, LLC, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Since receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from LSU in 1980, he has developed a broad base of architectural knowledge and now serves as partner in charge of many ongoing projects for the firm. While others in the firm are engaged in projects such as the continuing renovations to the Taylor Engineering Building on LSU’s campus, Buddy is actively engaged in the effort for the new office building for the Water Institute for the Gulf, a signature building for the innovative Water Campus in downtown Baton Rouge.
LSU College of Art & Design legacies—the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
Grace agreed that she was never pushed toward design, but she said her choice to major in landscape architecture had much to do with her parents. “My mom was always painting and doing things around the house, and I always liked going to my dad’s office and seeing what he was doing. He redesigned our house, and I grew up knowing that something my dad had done was built in a real-life setting. I loved what he did, and I think I just kind of took it and turned it in my own direction. So we’re staying similar but different.” In her senior year of high school, Grace was assigned to shadow a professional for career day. She couldn’t think of anything she was interested in other than design. Her father set her up with one of his colleagues, LSU Professor Emeritus Suzanne Turner of Suzanne Turner Associates, a landscape design, planning, and research firm in Baton Rouge. “I went to her office and really liked the dynamic there,” Grace recalled. “It was kind of like my dad’s office—very collaborative and free-flowing. I just liked how it felt, and so I chose landscape architecture as my major.” Grace returned to intern with Turner over the summer “to make sure I like where I’m going, and I do.”
Mrs. Lauren Ragland also graduated from LSU with a BS in marketing. Their daughter, Grace, is in her second year of the landscape architecture program at the LSU Robert Reich School. Both parents were influential in Grace’s decision to major in landscape architecture.
Both Grace and Buddy entertain the idea of working together one day. “She might end up in a firm that we do work with, and that would be kind of fun. Grace jokingly tells me that by the time I retire she’ll have opened her own firm and I can work for her,” Buddy mused.
“We never had an overt ‘you must follow in this track’ thing at all, really,” said Buddy. “We were more about trying to get Grace to settle on something that she could be enthusiastic about.”
“Yeah, my mom thinks we’ll end up a duo,” Grace added. “When he retires, he’s not really
Architect Buddy Ragland is excited to see his daughter Grace pursuing a design profession—landscape architecture. The two entertain the idea of working together someday.
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