By Judith Roberts

Following her lifelong passion has brought her back to her alma mater. 

Yeager, Watson and Associates partner Stephanie Morse found her love for architecture early in life and now gets to see her dreams play out at her alma mater as the first female architect who has led and completed a Louisiana Tech building project – the George T. Madison renovation. 

“This was something I wanted – I adamantly went and talked to my other partners and said, ‘We need to do this. I want to do something big for Tech,’” Morse said. “I wanted to be involved in this.” 

Morse, who received her degree in interior design from in 2003 and her architecture degree in 2006, both from Tech, said while her field has been mainly male dominated, the team working on GTM has several females. 

“We have a female structural engineer, which doesn’t often happen,” she said. “And we have a couple of interns right now who are female. That’s very rare in my world. It’s just fun getting a different perspective.” 

She said even though the work has been intense, it has been a great experience. 

“It’s a lot of hard work. I can’t tell you how many overtime hours I put in on this project,” Morse said. “It’s a very time-consuming process, but to see the outcomes of it? Yeah, it’s 100 times worth it.” 

For the GTM project, Morse said the renovation planning process was an exciting challenge. 

“The challenge for GTM is that it’s a box,” she said. “The shell is there, but it’s a very short box. It was built very economically in the ‘60s. So the floor to the next floor height is 12 feet – which, typically, people’s houses now have 12-foot ceilings.  

“Also, a lot of people have to go into that box, such as most of liberal arts…We interviewed every group that would possibly have classes in there and talk to them about what their wants and needs were for the building.” 

Morse said many of the changes echoed how teaching has changed since the time GTM was first constructed. 

“A majority of them wanted spaces that could be used multifunctionally. They wanted classrooms that weren’t just lecture halls,” Morse said. “The style of teaching now is so much more interactive than when it was when a building like GTM was originally built and everyone faced one direction. Twenty-first century learning need so many different functions.” 

Karl Puljak, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, much of the CoLA will be in the new GTM, but the School of Design, School of Music and School of Theatre will largely stay in their current homes. However, all of CoLA will have some representation in the renovated building with galleries, performance space and classrooms. 

“It’s incredibly meaningful to see a Louisiana Tech alumna — and a former student of mine — return to campus to lead a project of this scale and impact,” Puljak said. “Stephanie brings extensive professional experience to this work, and her education and practice background in both architecture and interior design make her uniquely qualified to lead a complex project that will bring the many parts of the College of Liberal Arts together under one roof. I’m especially excited about the collaborative and creative environment this new space will inspire for our students and faculty. Thanks to Stephanie and the team at YWA Architects.” 

Morse said she has always wanted to be an architect, but it didn’t really come from her love for drawing. 

“Whenever I was little, I liked to take things apart and see how they went back together,” she said. “Most people say, ‘I like to draw,’ or ‘I like to do this.’ I like to see how things go together, and I want to know how something works. I’ve always thought the creative part of architecture was fascinating. I always thought to see something that you did be brought to life and that would help people was so much fun.” 

And as the GTM project progresses over the upcoming months, Morse said she’s excited to see how her project comes to life not only for her – but also for her children, who attend A.E. Phillips, located on Tech’s campus.  

“I can’t wait to see the new entrance, the main entrance – I drop my kids off at A.E. Phillips, I turn onto Railway Avenue, and I turn east, and then you see GTM. That’s the first thing you see,” Morse said. “At that corner, there’s going to be a new entrance that’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to have a patio out front with railings, and it’s just going to be such a wonderful space. So to see that part of that building go up, every single day as I go to work – it’s going to be so exciting. It’s going to be so inspiring to me. 

“I’m very humbled. I’m very excited, very nervous. It’s a big role, to think you’re the first woman who is going to do this. That’s wild. And not only the first woman for this university but your alma mater. It’s really very special.” 

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