Harwood K. Smith, FAIA,
who nurtured HKS Inc. from a one-person Dallas-based studio office into
a national architecture and engineering firm, died from heart problems
December 8 at 89. A Chicago native born in 1913, Smith opened his studio
in 1939 and, over four decades, expanded it into a practice of more than
500 architects with locations nationwide and international outposts and
partnerships.
Smith
began his career by designing several residential communities and high-rise
office buildings. By the late 1970s, the firm diversified to include market
sectors with a steadier demand, such as education, industrial, banking,
and health-care. Smith aggressively marketed his practice, even setting
up models in office buildings, to court new business, according to the
Dallas Morning News. HKS’
projects in Texas include One Main Place, St. Michael’s and All
Angels Episcopal Church, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, the
First International Building, Reunion Arena, the Hockaday School, Ursuline
Academy, Moody Coliseum at SMU, the Plaza of the Americas, and Thanksgiving
Tower. In 1972, former AIA President Ronald A. Skaggs, FAIA, joined HKS
and began the firm’s specialized health-care practice. Today, HKS
is one of the largest health-care architecture firms in the U.S.
Before his retirement in 1980, Smith was president of AIA Dallas in 1972;
served on the Dallas Planning Commission, where he modernized the graphic
methods used to brief the mayor and city council on zoning cases; and
received an AIA Dallas Lifetime Achievement Award and a national AIA presidential
citation. He became a Fellow in the Institute in 1984. He also endowed
two scholarship programs at Texas A&M University, his alma mater.
Smith was an accomplished artist who first enrolled in painting courses
at the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of 11. His paintings have received
several awards and been exhibited nationwide. The paintings of the people
of Guatemala and their culture have been recognized by the Guatemalan
government and have been exhibited in the Ixchel Museum in Guatemala City.
Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects.
All rights reserved.
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