School of Architecture and Built Environment Awards Gala

This award honors an individual whose work has had a meaningful influence on architecture, design, and the cultural life of New Orleans while advancing the built environment at a local, national, or global level. 

Henry Shane (William Henry Shane Jr.)
 

Henry Shane (born June 29, 1937) is a businessman, philanthropist and avid collector of art and cars. A graduate of Tulane University with a Master of Architecture degree, Shane, along with H.M. “Tim” Favrot, co-founded Favrot & Shane Co. With nearly 10,650 apartment units, they built the company into one of the largest owners of multi-family residential real estate in Louisiana. Mr. Shane has a long history of generously contributing his time and resources to improve the economy of the region and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission and Greater New Orleans, Inc. He has also been extremely active in numerous civic and charitable causes. The philanthropic and cultural contributions of him and his wife have had a major impact on the greater New Orleans region. Mr. Shane has been the recipient of many awards, among them: Business Hall of Fame 2002 Junior Achievement Award and National Apartment Association 1989 Hall of Fame Award.

Profession: Architect and Real Estate Developer, Co-Founder & Co-Chairman of Favrot and Shane Companies Inc.

Education and Service: Henry Shane was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from De La Salle High School. He received his Master of Architecture Degree from Tulane University in 1961. He has also served his country and was honorably discharged from the Louisiana National Guard.

Business Career: As a licensed Architect in the State of Louisiana and Chairman of Favrot & Shane Companies, Inc., he has built or owns more than 9,300 apartment units in Southeast Louisiana, as well as a number of shopping centers, office buildings, self-storage facilities, and other commercial properties. Henry Shane had a long history of serving the community through numerous economic development efforts, civic organizations, and charitable causes. Following the oil industry collapse of 1983, he spearheaded an economic revitalization effort known as “The Jefferson Edge,” short for Jefferson Economic Development and Growth Commission. This organization was later merged into the present-day Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission, known as JEDCO. Henry Shane served as the first Chairman of JEDCO. He is also one of the three founding members of Greater New Orleans Inc.—a regional economic development alliance serving the 10-parish region of Southeast Louisiana. The GNO, Inc. mission is to serve as the catalyst for wealth creation in the Greater New Orleans region. Henry is one of twelve inductees into the National Apartment Association Hall of Fame and has been recognized with numerous other awards.

This award recognizes an individual or organization outside the architectural profession whose exceptional support has advanced the mission of the School and contributed to the growth and vitality of New Orleans. 

Marc Morial
 

Marc Morial, one of the few national leaders to possess “street smarts,” and “boardroom savvy,” is the transformative President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization.

He served as the highly successful and popular Mayor of New Orleans as well as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Marc previously was a Louisiana State Senator and was a lawyer in New Orleans with an active, high-profile practice.

He is a leading voice on the national stage in the battle for jobs, education, housing, health, voting rights, equity, and entrepreneurship.

Marc is a published author; his leadership book, Gumbo Coalition: 10 Leadership Lessons That Help You Inspire, United, and Achieve has been widely acclaimed, and his column entitled To Be Equal, reaches hundreds of thousands.

He is the host of the weekly syndicated television show, America’s Black Forum.

A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics and African American Studies, he has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential Black Americans by Ebony Magazine, one of the top 50 Non-Profit Leaders by the Non-Profit Times, one of the 100 Most Influential Black Lawyers in America and he has also been inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta, GA.

Marc and his father, the late Ernest “Dutch” Morial, are history makers as the first African American father/son mayors in the U.S. and were the subject of a Double Jeopardy question on the legendary Jeopardy television game show in the 1990s.

This award celebrates a distinguished faculty member whose dedication to teaching, mentorship, and scholarship has inspired generations of students and elevated the School’s academic excellence.

Carol McMichael Reese
 

Carol McMichael Reese is an art, architecture, and urban historian who taught courses in history, research methods, and urbanism in the Tulane School of Architecture and Built Environment (TuSABE) from 1999 to 2025. In academic year 2024-2025, she founded TuSABE’s Sustainable Urbanism undergraduate program and served as its founding director. From 2014 to 2020, she served as the doctoral program director of Tulane’s cross-school, multi-disciplinary PhD program City, Culture, and Community (CCC), which offered an Urban Studies track. 

Upon her retirement from teaching, she was appointed emerita professor, and she continues to direct CCC students writing Urban Studies dissertations. Carol previously taught in Architecture programs at the University of Maryland, College Park; SCI-Arc, UCLA, and UC San Diego. In Los Angeles, before coming to Tulane, she served as a consultant to the Getty Research Institute (GRI), directing the GRI’s project to document Frank Gehry’s design for the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and as director of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House. Her exhibitions, essays, and books have focused not only on contemporary art and architecture but also on early 20th-century urbanism in the Americas, particularly in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Panama. 

Her Project New Orleans, which documented proposals to rebuild the city after hurricane Katrina, won a Graham Foundation award, as did her co-edited history of New Orleans’s national historic landmark Longue Vue House and Gardens. Carol’s community-engaged work was recognized by Campus Compact and by the Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus. In 2022, she was a Visiting Senior Fellow at The Center, the National Gallery of Art’s research institute in Washington, D.C.

This award honors a graduate of the School whose professional accomplishments, leadership, and service reflect the highest values and aspirations of Tulane and the built environment. 

Wellington “Duke” Reiter
 

Wellington “Duke” Reiter, FAIA, is the Senior Advisor to the President of Arizona State University. He is also the Executive Director of the University City Exchange (UCX) which develops mutually beneficial relationships between the university and regional municipalities (Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale) and other American cities (Los Angeles, Washington DC). The work of the UCX is positioned at the intersection of issue + place and includes the Rio Reimagined project initiated by the late Senator McCain and Ten Across (10X), a nationally recognized initiative addressing topics of major consequence within the U.S. I-10 corridor.

Following his graduation from Tulane University’s School of Architecture, Reiter began his professional career working on the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. Influenced by that experience, he enrolled in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design where his thesis recommended preparations for the major hurricane that would inevitably befall the City of New Orleans. In Boston for twenty years, he was a faculty member in the MIT in the Department of Architecture and his office, Urban Instruments, Inc., designed multiple award-winning projects for institutions, cities, and public spaces in the U.S.

Reiter was then invited to be the Dean of the College of Design at Arizona State University and in that role, spearheaded the establishment of the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus at the request of President Michael Crow. Over the past several decades, he has also served as the President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and as a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute where he co-founded the University Development and Innovation Council. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a board member of the Aptera Motors Corporation.

The 2025 Awards Gala recognized an exceptional group of leaders whose contributions have strengthened the profession and enriched communities. These honorees represent the very best of Tulane’s legacy through their leadership and commitment to advancing architecture and the built environment.