EmC + Young

Ursula Emery McClure, FAAR, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, a founding partner of emerymcclure architecture and in addition to the firm, she also serves as the A. Hays Town Professor in the School of Architecture at Louisiana State University. Presently, she serves as graduate coordinator and teaches studios in the Masters of Architecture program and seminar courses that focus on Louisiana culture and architecture. She has also served as the Southwest Director for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. She studied liberal arts at Washington University in St. Louis MO with a major in Architecture and a minor in History and received a Masters in Architecture from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, NYC. Before starting emerymcclure architecture with Michael A. McClure, Ursula worked in New York for both Wendy Evans Joseph and Mitchell Giurgola Architects. She was a project manager and construction administrator for Mitchell Giurgola Architects on two large-scale urban schools on Staten Island, NY and the Manhattan Family Courts Building. Most recently, Ursula was awarded the 2013 ARCC Research Paper of the Year Award for her research of historical constructions along the Louisiana Coast and two of her graduate students placed in the 2013 ACSA Preservation as Provocation competition.

Michael A. McClure, FAAR, AIA, founding partner of emerymcclure architecture, was raised in rural Pryor OK. In addition to the firm, he currently is the Associate Dean for the College of the Arts and Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Professor McClure joined the faculty in the School of Architecture and Design in 2001. In 2011 he was awarded the UL Distinguished Professor Award. He holds a MARCH degree from Columbia University and a BA in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. He has taught at Pratt Institute in New York and at Tulane and LSU here in Louisiana. Throughout his tenure at UL McClure has made significant contributions to the architecture program winning advising awards and initiating studies with his students into ways of integrating architecture with the specific conditions of coastal wetlands. Before starting emerymcclure architecture with Ursula, Michael worked for Karen Bausman and Associates, Gluckman Mayner Architects, and Robert A.M. Stern.

Sarah Young is an assistant professor at UL Lafayette’s School of Architecture and Design. She has taught a variety of courses ranging from foundation design studios to graduate level history courses, both in face-to-face and online classroom settings. Outside of her experience as a teacher, she has professional experience in residential design, commercial design, and urban planning. Sarah has organized and participated in international design competitions. She strives for an architecture that stewards and reveals the human condition.

Kristi Cheramie is an associate professor at Ohio State Univeristy's Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture and chair of undergraduate studies in landscape architecture. She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the J.K. Branner Traveling Fellowship in support of her master's thesis at the University of California, Berkeley and EDRA Place Research Awards in 2008 and 2011 for work on rural landscapes in central California and coastal Louisiana. In 2011, with support from the National Endowment of the Arts, she led an interdisciplinary team in the documentation of coastal communities compromised by land loss, sea level rise and competing industrial interests. Currently Cheramie is leading one of three finalist teams in Future Ground, and international design competition hosted by the Van Alen Institute, where her team is developing long-range, flexible design and policy strategies for vacant land in New Orleans, transforming abandoned landscapes into resources for the current and future city.