Louis LaBeaume

Louis LaBeaume NA FAIA (July 31, 1873 – November 9, 1961) was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts tradition.

In New York City he had worked for Parish & Schroeder and in Boston for Andrews, Jaques & Rantoul, Peabody & Stearns and C. Howard Walker.

The partnership was quickly successful, their works including the Supreme Court of Missouri building (1907) in Jefferson City and the Severs Hotel (1912) in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Klein died in 1945, a year after suffering a disabling injury in an automobile accident in Rolla en route to Fort Leonard Wood, where the firm had work underway.

[7] LaBeaume was a traditionalist and proponent of Beaux-Arts methods, and a critic and unhappy adoptee of modern architecture.

He was a friend of Luther Ely Smith, who conceived the project, and prepared preliminary plans which were not accepted.

His service to the AIA included three years as a member of the board of directors, from 1928 to 1931, and a single term as first vice president in 1935–36.

This was generally received positively by the professional architectural press, but not elsewhere; historian William H. Jordy in Landscape found LaBeaume himself "confused," prejudiced and historically illiterate.

Notable architects who worked for LaBeaume include Harris Armstrong (1924–28),[14] J. Murrell Bennett (1926–1929),[15] Richard L. Bliss (1945–1946),[16] Hugh Ferriss (1911–1912),[17] Elmer A.

The Supreme Court of Missouri building in Jefferson City , designed by Mariner & LaBeaume in the Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1907.
Roemer Hall of Lindenwood University , designed by LaBeaume & Klein in the Collegiate Gothic style and completed in 1921.
The former Downtown YMCA Building in St. Louis , designed by LaBeaume & Klein in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1926.
The St. Louis Women's Christian Association in St. Louis , later the Phillis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA, designed by LaBeaume & Klein in the Colonial Revival style and completed in 1927.
Butler Library of Lindenwood University , designed by LaBeaume & Klein in the Collegiate Gothic style and completed in 1929.
The Stifel Theatre , originally the Kiel Opera House, in St. Louis , designed by LaBeaume & Klein in the Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1934. The attached and complementary Kiel Auditorium was demolished in 1992.