Jim Sullivan, associate professor at LSU’s School of Architecture, has been named chair of the College of Art + Design School of Interior Design.

“I am honored to be appointed to lead such a well-regarded and strong program,” Sullivan said. “The exceptional faculty, staff, students, and alumni deserve significant credit for their work in the program. I look forward to joining such a remarkable group as we adapt to continue to provide leadership in the discipline and practice of interior design.”

Sullivan came to LSU in 2000 as an assistant professor of architecture. He holds a bachelor of environmental design from Miami University (Ohio) and a master of architecture from University of Pennsylvania. He is a registered architect in New York, where he practiced prior to moving to Baton Rouge. He has worked with Joseph Rykwert, Bernard Tschumi, Hariri and Hariri, and Hanrahan and Meyers, among others.

In addition to teaching, Sullivan is the principal of the firm Louisiana Architecture Bureau (LA-ab). The work of LA‐ab focuses on the addition and alteration of existing structures with a special interest in interior works. “Much like most of the projects in New York City on which I worked, LA-ab’s work straddles the disciplines of architecture and interior design,” Sullivan said. The office’s work has been published in Metropolitan Home magazine and has won a number of state and local awards. (View their work at LA‐ab.com.)

Sullivan’s research interests as an architecture professor have focused on two areas of study. The first area concentrates on the pedagogical issues related to novice undergraduate learners within design disciplines. The second is Rem Koolhaas’s use of Salvador Dali’s Paranoid-Critical Method as an alternate way of thinking that facilitates unexpected, imaginative connections by deliberately simulating paranoid delusions. Here, Sullivan studies the Paranoid-Critical Method’s relationship to Koolhaas’s work and experiments with the Paranoid-Critical Method in his own design work.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Sullivan has held the administrative position of undergraduate program coordinator in LSU’s School of Architecture. In this position, he assisted in the coordination of all aspects of the undergraduate program, including recruitment, retention, and admissions; program assessment related to school and university accreditation; and curricular development and management.

“Jim Sullivan has an admirable record of professional, teaching and administrative experience and skills,” said LSU College of Art + Design Dean Alkis Tsolakis. “He has the personal qualities and commitment that will lead the interior design department to become the premier School of Interior Design in the region and the nation. I look forward to working with Jim and the interior design faculty, staff, alumni and students to achieve this goal.”