Ludvig Petersen

Ludvig Adolph Petersen was a Danish architect, teacher and a founding member and board member of the Architects' Association of Denmark. Ludvig Petersen primarily worked as an architect in Vejle and Aarhus. His parents were Zacharias Petersen, a ship's builder at Holmen in Copenhagen and teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and Emilie Sophie Thortsen. His brother was Edvard Petersen, painter and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts. He married Agnes Theodora Walther, the daughter of Vilhelm Theodor Walther], in 1881 and his son is the botanist and sketch artist Vagn Petersson. Ludvig Petersen died 10 April 1935 and is buried at Holmens Cemetery in Copenhagen.

Ludvig Petersen was originally trained as a carpenter between 1865-68 but attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from where he graduated with a degree in architecture. Between 1872-80 he was a teacher at the Technical School in Copenhagen before he moved to Vejle to work both as a teacher and principal in the Vejle Technical School between 1880 and 1888. From 1888 to 1918 he lived and worked in Aarhus as a teacher the technical school there. In 1877-80 he worked as the conductor at the renovation of Aarhus Cathedral under Wilhelm Theodor Walther. In 1880 he opened his own architects' practice.

Among Ludvig Petersen's best known works are a number of schools in Aarhus; Technical School on Ingerslevs Plads and the elementary schools in Finsensgade, N.J. Fjords Gade, Paradisgade, Ny Munkegade and Læssøesgade. His works architecturally shift between different Historicist styles. The tower on St. Nicolai Church and Missionshuset in Vejle have a Neo Gothic appearance with red brick and pointy-arched windows. The tower has stepped buttresses in the corners and a wide cornice-frieze while Missionshuset has frieze and windows framed by yellow brick. The Neo-Gothic style is a common element in many of Ludvig Petersen's school buildings while Vejle Theater in an example of Baroque Revival architecture.