John Desmond

John Desmond (5 April 1922 — 25 March 2008) was an American architect and military officer. 

Desmond was born as John Jacob Desmond on April 5, 1922, in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Hammond, Louisiana, after his family moved there. He attended Jesuit High School in New Orleans and later graduated from Hammond High School.

For higher education, he attended Southeastern Louisiana College and later moved to Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Architecture in architecture in 1941. He then earned a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. At MIT, he studied under noted architects William Wurster and Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto.

After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, Desmond, in his early architecture career, worked for Skidmore Owings & Merrill, in New York City; A. Hays Town in Baton Rouge; and the Tennessee Valley Authority, in Knoxville. He then returned to Hammond, Louisiana, in 1953 and opened the first architectural practice in the Florida parishes. Much of his work was concentrated in Louisiana, specifically in Hammond and Baton Rouge, in the 1950s through the 1970s. He has been widely acclaimed for pioneering the use of a regional modernism adapted to the conditions of the American South.

His buildings are known for the use of steel, large glass windows, and fanciful roofs that brought attention to the buildings. He also used bricks in his buildings that brickyards marketed as the "Desmond blend" of bricks. His work was often characterized by the use of overhangs and sunscreens and featured open glass areas that allowed light to stream in on many sides of rooms.

Desmond's buildings in Hammond include the St. Albert the Great Catholic Student Center Chapel and complex on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University, the Miller Memorial Library Building, the First Christian Church, and the Twelve Oaks Dining Hall on the Southeastern campus. In Baton Rouge, his creations include the Pennington Biomedical Administration Building, the LSU Union, the Louisiana State Library, the Baton Rouge Centroplex, the USS Kidd Museum, the Louisiana State Archives, and Broadmoor Baptist Church.

He also taught architecture in the Tulane, LSU, and Southern University Schools of Architecture.

• Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects for "Significant Contribution to Design"
• "Special Award for Preservation" from the Foundation for Historical Louisiana
• "Outstanding Alumnus" of the Tulane University School of Architecture
• The Arts Council of Baton Rouge's Mayor-President's Award for "Excellence in the Arts" 
• Louisiana A.I.A. Gold Award Lifetime Achievement Award.

Desmond was married twice. He was first married to Ella Blanche Russell Desmond of Magnolia, Mississippi. They had three children: John Michael Desmond, James Russell Desmond, and Margaret Desmond Dahm.

In his later years, he was married to Nell H. Lentz-Desmond.

Desmond died at the age of 86 on March 25, 2008, in Zachary, Louisiana.