 Mauran studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1885 through 1889 under the French-American educator Eugene Letang, and entered the Boston office of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge as a young draftsman.There he helped design the 1893 Chicago Public Library (now the Chicago Cultural Center) and the 1894 Art Institute of Chicago.Sent by the firm to establish a branch office in St. Louis, his employers closed shop there in 1900 and Mauran formed his own partnership, Mauran, Russell & Garden, which evolved into Mauran, Russell & Crowell in 1911.