Tipton Associates, APAC

10/28/2026

The Southern Gateway at Western Kentucky University is designed to give students a true sense of place and community on campus. We’re glad to contribute as dining and foodservice consultants to Gilbane and Mackey Mitchell as we shape the day-to-day dining environments that bring those goals to life in this major public-private development. Read the article below to see how the project is moving forward.

Western Kentucky University broke ground today on The Southern Gateway, the first phase of Elevate WKU, a multi-year initiative to transform student housing and create modern, student-centered living environments across the Hill.

10/24/2026

THANK YOU Erin Morgan, AIA & Liz Dyer, AIA for coordinating, fundraising and executing an incredible Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge chapter build. You are both incredible difference makers and advocates for the architectural community! You are greatly appreciated and loved! ❤️

10/24/2026

10/20/2026

Creating a space where people naturally gather requires creativity at every scale, from master planning down to custom millwork details. Our team, including managing principal Ken Tipton, is careful to hone those critical micro-details that keep dining operations seamless behind the scenes while making the venue feel effortless, welcoming, and built for community.

10/14/2026

10/08/2026

Interior designer Honor Swan is a tactile learner: true understanding comes from seeing how things are built, and how they function in their environments. Honor recently completed Steelcase’s six-session Designer Development program, facilitated by our partners at Frost Barber, which concluded with an immersive trip to the Steelcase Learning + Innovation Center in Grand Rapids, MI.

The curriculum went well beyond surface aesthetics, diving into workstation acoustics, electrical integration, ergonomic performance, and early-stage dealer collaboration. In Grand Rapids, Honor toured the active workplace, specialized healthcare and education showrooms, and the wood fabrication plant. Later, in the tactile learner's deram, she was able to assemble furniture firsthand.

The experience also brought a memorable dose of design history: dinner at the 1908 Meyer May House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in collaboration with Marion Mahony Griffin, one of the first licensed female architects and a important contributor to the Prairie School.

During yesterday’s firmwide Lunch & Share, Honor brought those findings back to our team. Her applied learning is already making an impact: she recently led a complete overhaul and expansion of our interior design furniture library to refine our specification and cost estimation capabilities, and she's even offered to audit how our team sits and uses our own office workstations. Seats forward, shoulders back!

10/07/2026

We’re glad to be included in Baton Rouge Business Report’s 2026 Best Places to Work, and to meet the other companies in the Capital Region who cultivate environments for their team members to work and play.

At Tipton, it's the space where our whole team can gather that has the richest meaning. Our conference room was once the carriage house for the first townhomes in Baton Rouge. Today, it's home to client collaborations, pumpkin carving, and costume contests. It's the starting line of our annual Easter Egg hunt, the table for our Pi(e) Days and Pie Contests (we'll take any excuse), and the staging ground for our White Light Night block party. It's where we come together each Monday morning to share, celebrate, and look ahead before we branch off to our studios, our job sites, our campus visits. Thank you to our terrific team at Tipton Associates for all you bring to the table.

10/03/2026

10/01/2026

Tipton Team Spotlight: Shane Higdon is celebrating 28 years at Tipton Associates this week.

Shane’s strength is turning complex operational challenges into clear, intuitive design.

As a firm principal and head of our Civic / Education studio, Shane is a trusted strategic partner to university leaders, industry clients, and partner design firms. He guides high-stakes projects across a broad spectrum of needs, including adaptive reuse, specialty labs, campus planning, student housing, and veterinary education and care.

Whether navigating historic registry constraints, collaborating seamlessly with fellow architects, or balancing large-scale master plans, his focus is always on solving the problem without ego.

For nearly three decades, that steady focus and collaborative spirit have helped shape both our work and our studio culture. Happy anniversary, Shane!