Louis Adolphe Simon was born May 1, 1867, in
Baltimore. He was educated at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a special student in architecture with the class of 1891, leaving the institute in 1889. Following a tour of Europe, he opened an architects office in Baltimore in 1894. In 1896 he joined the staff of the
Office of the Supervising Architect of the
United States Department of the Treasury in
Washington. Then under the direction of
William Martin Aiken, this office had charge of the design and construction of all
federal buildings in the United States. Simon had been recruited by Edward A. Crane, a former classmate, and in 1905 he was promoted to chief of the drafting division by Aiken's successor,
James Knox Taylor, succeeding Crane and Francis B. Wheaton. In this role Simon directed the work of a large number of drafters. In 1915
James A. Wetmore, a lawyer who had worked with the office since 1896, was appointed acting supervising architect. As Wetmore was not an architect, Simon became the de facto director of design for all of the work produced by the office during Wetmore's administration. During this period Simon served on the board which planned the
Federal Triangle, and obtained for the office the design of the
Internal Revenue Service Building, construction of which began in 1928 and was completed in 1931. Other large projects designed by the office during this period include the
Alaska State Capitol in
Juneau, completed in 1931, the
United States Post Office and Courthouse in
Baltimore, completed in 1932 and the
Federal Office Building in
Seattle, completed in 1933. Wetmore retired in 1934, one year after a large scale reorganization of the Treasury Department by president
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was succeeded by Simon. Simon was credited by the AIA with raising the standard of design for federal buildings, especially since his appointment in 1934. For his efforts and for his long involvement with the AIA, Simon was elected a
Fellow in 1937, the only supervising architect to be so honored. In addition to his AIA involvement, Simon was a member and president of the Association of Federal Architects and a member of the
National Institute of Arts and Letters, now the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Planning and Civic Association. ==Personal life==