“Familiar And New”: DPAW’s Timeless Vision From Louisville To Venice

By Alisha Proffitt Portraits by Matt Johnson and Structural photos provided by DPAW 

Fresh from the canal waterways of Venice, where their work now graces the U.S. Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Biennale, Ross Primmer and Roberto de Leon of DPAW return to Louisville with their architectural compass still set on exploration, context, and community. The exhibit highlights their latest project, an event pavilion at Historic Locust Grove, yet their journey, like their work, is more captivating than polished facades.

“Neither Roberto nor I are from Louisville, it’s an adopted city for both of us,” says Ross, co-founder of de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop (DPAW). “We met as architectural graduate students at Harvard and found we shared similar views on both architecture and what an architectural practice could be.” That shared vision is what ultimately gave rise to DPAW in 2005, a firm now internationally recognized with work spanning from Kentucky tobacco barns to the Istanbul Design Biennial.

Their Workshop, as they call it, is built on the ethos of investigation and inquiry rather than routine problem-solving. “Architecture is simply the tool we use for pursuing larger questions and engaging with the world around us,” Ross adds.

Roberto, who transitioned from microbiology to architecture, found himself drawn to a discipline where ambiguity wasn’t a limitation but an invitation. “Design problems are approached not with the aim of finding a single correct answer, but by balancing and resolving multiple, often competing, factors,” he explains.

Take, for instance, their reinterpretation of regional materials. “At Mason Lane Farm, the hay barn reimagines the Kentucky tobacco barn through an intricate lattice façade of locally grown bamboo,” Roberto shares. “Used in an unexpected manner, they transform the familiar into something new.” That same principle was used in the new pavilion at Locust Grove, where a herringbone façade of standard limestonesills (typically relegated to window ledges) becomes something architectural, something surprising.

For DPAW, architecture is designed for people. At the Filson Historical Society and Centennial Commons Pavilion, community engagement is a blueprint. “We see our role as architects primarily as one of ‘listening and distilling,’” Ross says. “Our work is a direct reflection of the people and places it serves.” Their design process begins with intensive charrettes, collaborative workshops where ideas flow from the community and feed into the project.

That sense of humility and responsiveness also appears in their adaptive reuse work. “The historic structure remains the primary focus and anchor of the project, while our interventions play a complementary, supporting role,” Ross explains. “We never imitate historic elements in new additions; instead, the new work is designed as a respectful companion.” It’s an approach that both honors the past and reinvents spaces from a modern perspective. 

Sustainability, for DPAW, is equally grounded in context and pragmatism. “At Mason Lane Farm we leveraged passive design strategies rooted in regional building traditions,” Roberto says. “Strategies like optimizing natural light, maximizing cross ventilation, and prioritizing previous ground surfaces are simple, cost-effective methods to reduce environmental impact.” Their most contemporary feature there? A wood-fired boiler powered by farm debris, a sustainable solution drawn from the land it serves. DPAW generally doesn’t rely onhigh-tech for sustainability and turns first to regional, passive strategies.

Even as their portfolio moves between urban and industrial environments to more rural areas, their approach remains the same. “Whether in an urban environment or a rural landscape, we design so that the projects seem to emerge organically from their surroundings,” says Ross. “They reflect the unique character, history, and conditions of the place, so much so that they feel inseparable from it, as if they could exist nowhere else.”

So, what’s next for this duo, recently named Fellows of the American Institute of Architects and recipients of three AIA National Honor Awards? On the boards now is a renovation and expansion of the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, home to a collection on plant-based medicine, including volumes from the 14th century. True to form, the design will feature a custom celadon-colored terracotta façade, fabricated in Germany. 

As architecture continues to evolve, DPAW remains refreshingly steady in its philosophy. “We see our design philosophy evolving through a continued exploration of ‘economy through innovation,’ rather than by following architectural trends,” Roberto says. “This approach strikes a balance that looks both forward and backward, honoring the past while actively shaping the future.” 

From Venice to Louisville, bamboo barns to historic libraries, DPAW continues to create spaces that are, as Ross puts it, “both familiar and new.” 

For more information on DPAW visit: deleon-primmer.com