Rome Office is a licensed, full-service architecture and design firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Office creates award-winning projects throughout the southeastern United States that re-envision multi-family housing, hospitality, leisure, institutional, commercial, and retail programs. The Office is a certified SLDBE and currently applying for SBE status.
Rome Office believes that creative design is a powerful tool, able to question and influence the habits of cultures, environments, and routines. The team specializes in creating innovative solutions for projects by practicing an iterative design process that encourages the reconsideration of programmatic and social norms. For example, the acclaimed Schoolhouse project transforms a historic schoolhouse building into multifamily housing through the addition of a box containing all the components for modern-day living in the center of each classroom.
Rome Office values strong collaboration with its clients and consultants and searches out open-minded partners that support and enhance its creative process.
Rome Office is led by Brian and Melissa Rome, both natives of the southeastern United States. Collectively, they have worked in the field of architecture for over 20 years in Barcelona, Rotterdam, Copenhagen, New York, Charleston, and New Orleans. Their experience on large and small scale projects span 10 countries and 5 continents.
LEADERSHIP
Melissa Bauld Rome, AIA, NCARB is a founding Partner of Rome Office. She is a registered architect in Louisiana, South Carolina, and New York with professional experience in a number of design fields including architecture, product, lighting, graphic, and urban design. Over the past fifteen years she has lived and practiced in Barcelona, Charleston, New York, and New Orleans.
Melissa, together with her partner Brian, leads the design and realization of the studio’s projects including the award-winning Schoolhouse, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the Greenville Museum and Event Center. Her experience working with different project types and scales across multiple continents has influenced her design ambition to question and enhance the habits of cultures, environments, and routines.
She has served as an adjunct professor at Tulane University, where she taught an Advanced Design Studio, and continues to serve as an invited lecturer and critic. She and Brian have additionally taken on the role of organizing the Louisiana AIA Celebrate Architecture design symposium, an annual event that brings together internationally recognized architects to share their recent works and explore current trends of practice.
Before founding Rome Office, Melissa was a Project Designer / Manager at BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) in New York City. At BIG she served as both Project Designer / Manager for the award-winning, Vancouver House development.
She received her Master of Architecture degree from Yale University where she was awarded the James Gamble Rodgers Fellowship in recognition of outstanding performance in critical thought and design. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Language from Clemson University.
Brian Rousseau Rome is a founding Partner of Rome Office, which is located in his home town of New Orleans, Louisiana. Over the past 15 years he has worked on the design of complex projects with a variety of scales and programs. He has lived and worked in Rotterdam, New York, Copenhagen, and New Orleans.
Brian, together with his partner Melissa, leads the design and realization of the studio’s projects including the award-winning Schoolhouse, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the Greenville Museum and Event Center. His experience working with different project types and scales across multiple continents has influenced his design ambition to question and enhance the habits of cultures, environments, and routines.
He has served as an adjunct professor at Tulane University, where he taught an Advanced Design Studio, and continues to serve as an invited lecturer and critic. He and Melissa have additionally taken on the role of organizing the Louisiana AIA Celebrate Architecture design symposium, an annual event that brings together internationally recognized architects to share their recent works and explore current trends of practice.
Before founding Rome Office, Brian was a Project Leader at BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) in New York City. At BIG he worked directly with Bjarke, leading architectural and urban design projects in North America and Asia. Prior to BIG, he worked as a designer at OMA in Rotterdam.
Brian received his Master of Architecture degree from The University of Texas at Austin where he was awarded the Louis F. Southerland Endowed Scholarship. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University.