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Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers

Architectural partnership formed in 1946 by Nathaniel (Cortlandt) Curtis Jr and Arthur Quentin Davis

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ98639191
Source-derived summary

Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers was an American architectural and design firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They designed more than 400 buildings in 30 states in the United States and nine countries worldwide. Curtis and Davis was dissolved upon its 1978 sale to the firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall. The firm is sometimes referred to as Curtis & Davis.

In 2011, Kenneth Schwartz, then dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture, stated: "It [Curtis and Davis] was the pivotal firm of the city from the 1950s on. Their legacy is really extensive, not only in New Orleans but also across the world."

Founding

Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, Jr., and Arthur Quentin Davis formed Curtis and Davis in 1947. They knew each other as classmates at the Tulane University School of Architecture, having graduated one year apart. Curtis approached Davis about forming the firm, at a time when they perceived that the city of New Orleans was ripe for an infusion of modernist architecture. Revivalist designs had dominated New Orleans architecture in the years leading up to the founding of Curtis and Davis. In the immediate post-war period, there was significant demand for new construction in New Orleans.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers” is architectural partnership formed in 1946 by Nathaniel (Cortlandt) Curtis Jr and Arthur Quentin Davis. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Curtis, Davis and Architects, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1978, 2011, 1947—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946. For this dossier, Curtis, Davis and Architects is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “architectural partnership formed in 1946 by Nathaniel (Cortlandt) Curtis Jr and Arthur Quentin Davis” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q98639191. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978, 2011 and 1947.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers primary sources, Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers archive and Curtis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Curtis and Davis Architects and Engineers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.