The Advocate Office Building Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Advocate Office Building is Lemoine’s third project for The Advocate Newspaper. The first two projects, Advocate Administrative Offices and Reiger Production Facility, were contracted by the Manship Family. The new Advocate office building is for new owner John Georges, a successful businessman from New Orleans. John Georges purchased the newspaper from the Manship family in May of 2013 and announced his plans for a new office building in early 2014.

Completed with zero lost-time incidents and ahead of schedule, The Advocate’s new corporate headquarters spans 48,500 SF and houses the newsroom of the Baton Rouge Advocate, as well as the business offices for all three of The Advocate’s daily papers and its growing number of weekly papers.

The state-of-the-art, 3-story steel structure is comprised of glass and stucco exterior finishes. The building’s façade is accented with programmable LED lights easily adjusted for sporting events or seasonal celebrations and also features a large digital display that posts the latest news headlines.

Delivered under the Design-Build method, the Owner and Publisher, John Georges and wife Dathel, hope the building will be seen as an iconic landmark along I-10.

The new facility also moves the Advocate offices adjacent to the production staff which they hope will make the company more united. A bridge across the retention pond connects the two campuses, while greenspace provides a break area for employees.

The entire complex is powered by standby generator power in case of storms to ensure the paper and websites stay working in the event of a natural disaster.