40 Years and Counting
March 2026
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Today, March 18, 2026, Campo celebrates forty years since John T. Campo Jr. founded the practice as a one-person studio grounded in the belief that thoughtful design can have a lasting impact. We are proud to mark a meaningful milestone in our firm’s history.
With experience as our foundation and curiosity as our guide, we remain committed to serving our clients with the same energy, rigor, and care that have defined the firm from the beginning.
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Early projects, such as the transformation of the historic JAX Brewery in New Orleans, helped shape the firm’s direction and continue to influence our work today. As John’s first major exposure to adaptive reuse and historic preservation, this project marked a defining moment in his career.
Working as part of the team that preserved and reimagined the former brewery into a vibrant mixed-use destination along the Mississippi River, the success of this iconic project set John on the path to build a firm grounded in adaptive reuse, historic preservation, and historic tax credit consulting.
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During the 1990s, the firm experienced major growth as hospitality and healthcare emerged as defining sectors of its expanding practice. Healthcare became a dominant pillar through long-term campus and specialty medical projects across the region.
Hospitality work accelerated through multiple hotel-company clients and a growing network centered in Dallas, helping extend the firm’s reach beyond Louisiana. This decade also marked the firm’s deeper involvement in hotel development and growing expertise in historic tax credit projects, reinforcing its role in the adaptive reuse of historic properties.
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The 2000s were a decade of reinvention. A strong foundation of healthcare work, expanding out-of-state opportunities, and a broader national footprint helped the firm overcome challenges that followed 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2008 financial crisis.
Military work also became an important new sector in the post-Katrina years, while the launch of a Las Vegas office in 2007 reflected a strategic expansion influenced in part by the firm’s experience after Katrina. Even amid this volatility, the firm continued to pursue major hospitality, redevelopment, and historic tax credit projects.
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This period brought greater scale, complexity, and integration to the firm’s work. Campo continued expanding its national footprint, completed a record number of hospitality projects, and built on its established expertise in historic tax credits, adaptive reuse, and large-scale repositioning, applying this knowledge to transform historic buildings into distinctive hospitality destinations.
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During this decade, Campo also established its internal Interior Design Studio, expanding its ability to deliver fully integrated architecture and interior design services. The studio quickly grew into a core part of the practice, allowing the firm to shape projects more holistically and further strengthen its work in hospitality design.
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In the 2020s, the firm’s reputation continued to grow, particularly within the hospitality sector and in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings. Building on decades of experience, Campo has taken on an increasingly ambitious portfolio of projects across the country, many of which have received industry recognition and multiple design awards.
The firm’s work during this period reflects a high level of design sophistication, combining thoughtful architecture with immersive interior environments. With the strength of integrated architecture and interior design teams, Campo has delivered a series of standout projects that showcase the firm’s ability to transform both historic structures and new developments into distinctive hospitality destinations.
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On this anniversary, we honor the past but look more toward what lies ahead. Spanning new build, interior design, historic tax credit consulting, and development, our work on the boards reflects both our legacy and our future.
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