George Milton
Small Jr.FAIA
(1916–1992)
Small was born in Collinsville OK. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in architecture and another in engineering. He later attended the Illinois Institute of Technology studying under Mies van der Rohe. In Chicago he worked for Perkins Will and Hudgins Thompson Ball. At the recommendation of Henry Kamphoefner, who was his professor at Oklahoma, Small relocated to North Carolina in 1948 to be Chief Designer for William Deitrick, at the time Raleigh's largest architectural firm. While there he and Matthew Nowicki designed the 1947 Carolina Country Club, the first such club in the country of Modernist design. Small left Deitrick in 1949 to start his own firm. In the 1950s, he partnered with Joseph Boaz, also from Oklahoma. According to Jim Brandt, who was the firm's superintendent, Small and Frank Walser went into business to develop a few houses in Drewry Hills in the mid-1950s. The first houses didn't make much money so they stopped.
Small is noted for designing the NCSU Student Center (with its signature concrete walkways), WRAL-TV studios (with Joseph Boaz), St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Durham's Home Security Life Building, and his prolific Modernist houses below. His son, G. Milton III, became principal at the firm, renamed Small Kane Architects, who has since retired.
Small designed the Raleigh Municipal Building (City Hall) in 1960, above, which was later converted to the Raleigh Police Headquarters, destroyed for a new City Hall.
Small also designed the 1957 Home Security Life building in Durham NC. After about 25 years, it became a police headquarters for several decades. In 2019, the police department moved out and the city elected to save it as part of a new development, still not done as of 2025.
Small designed 3515 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, above, for an insurance company, which was so happy with the building they asked Small to design a similar one in Chicago, destroyed in 2014. 3515 Glenwood was destroyed in March 2016. Details on both buildings here.
Small designed his own office at 105 Brooks Avenue, Raleigh NC. Still owned by the Small family as of 2018. Leased to NC State.
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