Employee Spotlight: Meet Rex

MEET REX

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already met Rex Cabaniss. Maybe you met with him as an urban planner championing the development of the Baton Rouge Health District. You may have met him in his volunteer work as a member of numerous civic, arts, and education organizations in Baton Rouge, including The Walls Project, Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, and Young Entrepreneurs Academy. If you've met him, you know he is a consummate professional, an exceptional artist, an accomplished architect and urban planner, with a genuine heart for smart urban growth and civic engagement in our community.

An expert when it comes to planning, Rex recently demonstrated his planning prowess by completing a rigorous process earning him the title of AICP-Certified Planner. In 1998, he volunteered as local Architect on the landmark Plan Baton Rouge downtown master plan. He recalls that “working alongside Andrés Duany, Davis Rhorer, and Boo Thomas was instructive in facilitating broad consensus from community groups, business stakeholders, and political leadership.” Just 10 years later Rex assembled the selected Planning Team for Plan Baton Rouge II. Working with Chan Krieger, Reed Hilderbrand, HR&A Advisors for the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and Downtown Development District directed the next phase of urban development.

Several urban planning projects followed in both leadership and support roles: Downtown Visitors’ Amenity Plan, FUTUREBR Comprehensive Plan, Baton Rouge Health District Infrastructure Implementation Plan, Imagine Plank Road, Louisiana State University ECI District, and Just Imagine SWLA. Each addresses a broad range of quality-of-place issues for evolving urban contexts, while coordinating development principles to guide future growth.

See featured images below from the Biloxi Convention District Master Plan orchestrated by Rex. The master plan entails hotels, multifamily, restaurants, retail, marina, pier, pedestrian bridges, and an amphitheater in addition to convention facilities. A grand boulevard links the district with specialty lighting, signage, and landscaping to define the mixed-use destination and as a development catalyst for this waterfront community.