Introduction

 Hi,

My name is Perrin Ehlinger and I'm the President of Ehlinger & Associates, P.C., an Architecture firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm licensed in the State of Louisiana and the State of Alabama. The firm was founded by my father, Ladd P. Ehlinger, in 1968. I worked regularly at our offices since I was in high school, joining full time after graduating from Auburn University in 1996. I grew up in New Orleans, but settled in Huntsville, Alabama after graduation. There, I obtained my first architectural license in 2000 and obtained my reciprocal license in Louisiana in 2001. I assumed management of the Huntsville office in 2005, and our two offices would share work and personnel over the years as needed. We were both integral to the quality control and oversight of each others' work.

Ladd passed away in May of 2021, and I assumed Presidency of the firm. Frankly, it's been a complete shit-show since then. Well, it's always been a shit-show; Ladd was like a force of nature and had a special forceful way of bending the world around him to convince it to conform to his beliefs of quality, production, fairness, and justice. Without his loud voice and unbending determination, it's been a rocky road for me back to a firm foundation upon which to continue in this profession. But, he taught me well...

I've moved back full time to New Orleans since his death, as the firm had more work in New Orleans than I had in Huntsville. Huntsville has been a very nasty place for small business over the past 10 years, worsening considerably since the Covid Pandemic, so I've no qualms about leaving there. I still maintain my license and corporate presence, but I'm not actively seeking work there.

Of course, working in New Orleans has its own unique set of issues, but they feel much more familiar, having grown up here, and slightly easier to navigate. Breaking through the "good 'ol boy" corruption network to get any State or Local government work in Alabama was completely inscrutable to me, except for the obvious - which I have no interest in engaging in. It's not like government projects pay much to begin with; I'm not going to sell my soul for a couple of extra pennies.

In Louisiana, I can at least hope to maintain the position of "if you really need it fixed, help me get the job," and rely on my firm's extensive history of projects that have successfully fixed problems with difficult buildings. It worked for Ladd, and occasionally landed some new design work from the State and Local governments.

I just don't yet have the recognition he did, and I'm not nearly as loud or socially connected as he was. What I can do is write, though, so I'm going to mercilessly generate content to represent myself and my firm. Ladd was known for his quarterly newsletters, which he issued from 1988 to the first quarter of 2021. I wrote many of the articles for those over the years, and while I can sketch, I could never do it as quickly or nicely as Ladd, so I won't be continuing those at this date, but I will continue writing.

In addition to architectural content, I'll be writing about whatever else interests me, because creating content these days as marketing is like pissing in the wind when faced with unending A.I. generated content and an internet repurposed to separate and isolate people from each other and extract money. Sure, I want money, but I want to earn it by providing something of value, either in this written form or through the capabilities of my architectural firm.

So, please subscribe and continue reading as we find the time to write more.