Witness braids text and image to tell the story of Duvall Decker, an AIA Firm Award-winning architecture office rooted in Mississippi and committed to a practice in search of the public good. Spanning the firms early beginnings through the completion of the Greenville Federal Courthouse, the book illustrates ten milestone projects that reveal the breadth and depth of their built work. Seven critical essays offer textured readings of the firms ethos, situating their practice within its cultural, social, and temporal context. Written from the perspective of an attuned witness who shares a love for the South and its people, the essays explore themes of kinship, resistance, place, tectonics, and orchestration in architectural practice. Visual and textual marginalia thread through the book, standing on their own while also enriching the primary essays and project narratives. Observational voices from those who have collaborated with or been shaped by the firm provide rare and intimate insights. A sister volume to Foundations, Witness is both a close study of Duvall Deckers architecture and a broader meditation on what it means to practice architecture as an act of witness in and from the American South.
Jori Erdman is an architect and architectural educator with a 25-year career, primarily in academia. Her work centres on researching, supporting, and promoting the architectural design culture of the American South through scholarship and teaching. She is currently Professor of Architectural Design at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.
Anne Marie Duvall Decker, FAIA, sees architecture as instrument, engaging the material phenomena of the environment and culture to create the potential for education and growth. She leads the studio in creating elusive forms and engaging public spaces, no matter the type, size, or budget of projects. Anne Marie a is teacher, leader, and an accomplished pianist. She has served the profession in many capacities, as a long-term board member and past president of AIA Mississippi and as a Trustee and 2021 Chair of the AIA Trust. Anne Marie is often invited to share her experience as a lecturer, critic, visiting professor, and design juror. She was recently appointed to serve the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations as a 2021-2023 Industry Advisory Group peer and was awarded the 2023 Mississippi State University College of Architecture, Art, & Design Alumna of the Year Recipient. In 2023, Anne Marie Duvall Decker was a recipient of Architectural Records Women in Architecture Design Leadership Award.
Roy Decker, FAIA, expands the role of an architect in search of public good. Roys dedication to design excellence, education, and craft infuses the firms work with meaning. For the past three decades, Roy has led the firm to complete public projects of varying scales and types and to achieve significant design recognition. Roy is a design and critical thought leader, whether he is participating in an inner-city neighbourhood meeting, serving on student reviews across the country, sharing his perspective in lectures and publications, or inspiring an individual in conversation. In all of these encounters, he exhibits an unwavering commitment to considering the consequences of architectural design work in the lives of others.
