Our Vision is to deeply understand and fully enhance our clients’ strategies through places designed for exceptional results, not just applause.

Established in 1963, LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD. is a multi-disciplinary firm offering architectural, interior architecture, and strategic visioning services to a wide variety of clients nationwide. LS3P is dedicated to well-conceived master planning, quality architecture, and a satisfied client. As such, the firm has carefully assembled an experienced staff that represents a strong degree of technical ability and professional dedication for a full-service practice that provides award-winning architecture and interior architecture.

Centrally located to all regions of the Southeast—Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington—coupled with a staff of over 200 professionals, LS3P is committed to bringing state-of-the-art design, technology, and expertise of a strong regional firm closer to our clients on a local level. The editor of DesignIntelligence has called LS3P “the most local of the global firms and the most ‘world-class’ of the locals.” Our network of offices allows us to think globally and act locally. We are large enough to offer total design capabilities, from facility assessment and site selection through interior design and collective expanded services, all within the firm, yet small enough to give personal attention while drawing off the firm’s total resources. The combined offices have received nearly 350 awards for excellence in design utilizing practical yet creative solutions to enhance client strategies.

By listening closely and constantly attending to service, LS3P reaches the solutions that will best serve our clients. Additionally, we make certain that clients are thoroughly understood and included throughout the life of a project. LS3P believes in working collaboratively in order to reach a deep understanding of clients’ desires and expectations. Forging strong affiliations embraces everyone as a member of the design team, allowing all to share ownership of the final results.

In Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1st, 1963, Frank Lucas rented a one-room office in the Darlington Apartments. Having been licensed to practice Architecture less than a month, and not even having a certificate in hand, a shingle was hung on a pegboard screen in front of the door-turned-drafting table. With a bankroll of $600, no insurance, a very young family, and a great deal of ambition, trust and hope; “Frank Lucas, Architect” was open for business. It was one of Charleston’s most beautiful spring days.

The one anticipated and much depended on commission; The Climatic Corporation, actually did not begin for two years! The Curry Residence in Mount Pleasant, at a construction cost of $35,000, was the first project on the board. The first school project was a new can wash behind the cafeteria of a high school. Many builder-homes and screened porch additions also paid the bills that first year. Any and all projects were enthusiastically accepted and valued as an opportunity to be recognized for larger work.

In the fall of that same year, the office was relocated into the basement of the Berkeley Court Apartments, in an old barber shop a little closer to the business district on the corner of Rutledge and Beaufain Streets. Several other residences and a fire station on James Island followed. The total fee of the fire station was $750, including Construction Administration!

In March of 1964, a Clemson classmate, Sidney Stubbs, joined Frank Lucas and the firm became Lucas and Stubbs, Architects. That summer, Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard, Jr. announced an architectural competition for the design of The Municipal Auditorium and Exhibition Hall for the City of Charleston. Frank and Sidney, having few paying commissions at the time, entered the competition. They worked on the income producing projects during days, returning to the office after supper and worked until three or four a.m. for the entire eight-week duration of the charrette.

The night before the final design drawings were due, a terrible rain and thunderstorm hit Charleston at a full moon high tide. The basement office started flooding. Water was spewing up through the floor through the boltholes that formerly secured the barber chairs. A calm and controlled panic ensued. The tracing paper used for the final drawings started wrinkling and was so damp and slick the pencil lead would no longer stick. Standing in eight inches of water in bare feet, drawing continued with charcoal pencils in a very loose, sketchy, freehand style. The project was delivered at nine a.m., just as St Michael’s Church bells chimed, by two tired, wet, but very optimistic young architects. As it turned out, the jurors really liked the sketchy illustrations!

Two weeks later, Lucas and Stubbs Architects was declared the winner of the competition. This project helped catapult the young firm into the public spotlight, bringing with it other opportunities for design commissions leading to a growing portfolio of work. Gaillard Auditorium opened in 1968 to critical acclaim and received an Honor Award from the SC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Out of this recognition the firm began to grow, moving forward and setting the pace for the future. Without realizing it at the time, the legacy of LS3P was born during those very exciting and challenging early days of the firm, forming the foundation of our core values that serve us well to this day.