Albert Lewis (Al)
Haskins Jr.FAIA

(1910–2002)

Haskins was born in Reidsville NC. He took courses in Civil Engineering from UNC Chapel Hill from 1927-1928 and received his architecture degree at Georgia Tech in 1931. He worked for Louis F. Voorhees in High Point, WC Olsen Consulting Engineers in Raleigh, William Henley Deitrick in Raleigh, Linthicum & Linthicum Architects in Raleigh, and Allen J. Maxwell of Goldsboro. From 1937-1941, he worked in Richmond for Portland Cement Association and for Baskerville and Son Architects. In 1941, he moved to Newport News to manage the office of Williams, Coile, & Pipino Architects and Engineers. He married Raleigh native Anne Simms that year. They returned to Raleigh in 1945 when he briefly ran a solo firm. In 1946, he joined with Thomas Cooper and Dick Rice to form Cooper & Haskins and Rice.

In 1954, Cooper retired and the firm became Haskins & Rice, a partnership that would last for decades. Haskins' background in engineering and his knowledge of construction and building codes complemented Dick Rice's love of design. It was a creative, productive partnership. Even before laws were made concerning handicapped facilities in the states, Haskins was a strong proponent of accessible buildings. From 1956 to 1958 he was an associate professor at the NCSU School of Design. In the 1980s the firm became Haskins Rice Savage and Pearce; then Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee; then in 2013 it was merged into Clark Nexsen. As of 2009, his daughter Kathleen was a principal at the firm.

According to another daughter, Betty Anne Schlegel, when Haskins moved to Raleigh in 1945, there were about five architects in practice. He got them together for lunch at the S&W Cafeteria, a precursor to the Raleigh Section of AIANC, of which he was President in 1961-1962.