Lesesne Monteith The people who claim to know it all are a major annoyance to those who do.”

–Architect Lesesne Monteith

By John Temple Ligon

Architect J. Lesesne Monteith left Eau Claire High School to finish Clemson Architecture first in his class. With his five–year degree, Monteith studied for his master’s at Princeton, where Michael Graves was one of his studio professors. This was shortly before Michael Graves became Michael Graves, one of the New York Five and the design competition winner for the Portland City Hall (OR).

Hodnett interior by Monteith at Edisto Beach After serving his country at West Point and in South Vietnam, Monteith took another two years of graduate school for an MBA (1972), graduating Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, America’s first business school, and (pardon me, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, et al.) arguably the best.

At Wharton Monteith emphasized real estate finance in his course choices. In the summers Monteith worked for Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle & Wolff (LBC&W), and after graduating Wharton he came on board.

Prioreschi’s 1520 Main Street next to Canal Dime Savings Bank Building For a couple of years after LBC&W, Monteith designed for Columbia’s Wilbur Smith & Associates, where he was deputy director of architecture for one of the world’s largest transportation planning firms.

After Wilbur Smith and through 1985, Monteith was director of architectural design and interior design for Stevens & Wilkinson, where he got credit for the Palmetto Center, the Marriott, and the parking garage along Sumter Street, among many other projects.

Monteith’s 1980 projections for Gervais Street For several years Monteith was vice president at GMK and company architect for Development Properties Inc., working with some of the same people in both operations.

Since 1991, his firm J. Lesesne Monteith, Architect, has taken on design challenges too numerous and too varied to cite. But in particular, Gold’s Gym, 60,000 square feet under construction on Columbiana Drive, is Monteith’s building for developer and business owner John Hay Burris.

Monteith’s houses are scattered all over the South, and illustrated on page B1 is an interior shot of the Hodnett home at Edisto.

Downtown all of developer Tom Prioreschi’s projects are done by Monteith. For example, under construction is Monteith’s shared design project with Architrave, the new residential/retail building at 1520 Main Street. A responsible recall to the glory days of Main Street, 1520 is helping to re–establish the 1500 block, already begun several years ago by Prioreschi and Monteith with the Kress Building.

From his office above Hampton Street Vineyards, Monteith gets a good feel for successful street–conscious buildings and designs accordingly.

I wouldn’t do anything without Lesesne Monteith. –Developer Tom Prioreschi