George McCollum
SmartAIA

(1931–2003)

Smart was born in South Carolina and moved to Franklin, VA in high school. He graduated from Randolph Macon College in English Literature in 1952 and became a Methodist minister after a year at Duke Divinity School. Disenchanted with the hypocrisy of the Church, he went to the NCSU School of Design and started a Bachelor's of Architecture in 1953. While in school, he worked for Haskins and Rice and Edwards McKimmon.

From 1956-1958 he served in Korea and won a Special Achievement Award in Architecture. After returning to Raleigh, he finished at NCSU in 1959 and worked at Holloway and Reeves for a year, Walter Burgess for a few months, then returned to Haskins and Rice until 1962. During that winter, he and his family moved to Salisbury to work for John Ramsay. His wife Ann did not like the small town nor the distance from her mother in Raleigh, and they returned there nine months later in 1963. Smart worked again for Walter Burgess, this time as a partner, then went on his own in 1964.

During his career he focused on churches and schools. In 1967, he joined with Charlie Woodall, and later Max Isley and Troy Herring. Their firm over the next 10 years became one of the largest in the state with offices in Durham, Raleigh, and Greenville. Smart was in charge of the SAR awards in 1972.

During the late 1970s the partners split and during the 1980s Smart's career turned to four key markets: the removal of asbestos in federal buildings; military housing; US post offices; and major school buildings in North Carolina. Although Smart's commissions were primarily commercial, he did a few houses, below. He was visiting faculty at Taliesin in Wisconsin for one summer around 2000. He retired in 2002 and died of pancreatic cancer in 2003. Additional resources: NCSU Archives

1967 - Smart with Charles Boney and Thomas Hayes

2000 - Smart at Fallingwater