Jerry Hebert, CEO of Grace, photographed by Jackie Haxthausen
What do a resort community in Saudi Arabia, the new Epic Universe park at Universal Orlando and a police station in Zachary all have in common?
They all have elements designed by architects who are now part of the growing Baton Rouge-based Grace Design Studios.
The firm’s global portfolio is eye-popping evidence of its rapid expansion and evolution since being infused with capital through an investment from private equity management firm Bernhard Capital Partners in 2022.
Known as Grace Hebert Curtis Architecture at the time, the firm proceeded to go on an acquisition spree that eventually led to a rebranding in May of this year. Now with 22 regional offices in 12 states, Grace has become a fully integrated architecture, engineering and consulting, or AEC, firm with projects in sectors ranging from health care and education to civic infrastructure, hospitality and beyond.
The strategy has already begun to pay significant dividends. As No. 5 on Zweig Group’s 2025 Hot Firm List of fastest-growing AEC firms in the U.S. and Canada, Grace reported gross revenue of $137 million in fiscal year 2024, a 242.5% increase over its 2021 gross revenue of $40 million. And more architecture firms around the country are now beginning to follow Grace’s lead by partnering with private equity.
“We felt that if we could be market sector diverse and regionally diverse, we would create a company that could live forever,” says Grace CEO Jerry Hebert. “We really had to rethink how this company lives for the long haul, and how we could take and grow it to a point where we would have more opportunity for our staff to be able to do different types of work throughout the world.”