Proudfoot & Bird


Proudfoot & Bird was an American architectural firm that designed many buildings throughout the Midwest region of the United States. Originally established in 1882, it remains active through its several successors, and since 2017 has been known as BBS Architects | Engineers.

History

The firm of Proudfoot & Bird was originally established in Huron, Dakota Territory in 1882 by William Thomas Proudfoot and George Washington Bird. Though they practiced variously in South Dakota, Kansas, Utah and Iowa, they are best known for their works in Iowa.
William T. Proudfoot was born May 2, 1860, in Indianola, Iowa, to Elias Proudfoot, a carpenter, and Martha Ann Proudfoot. He attended the local schools, and by 1880 was working as a draftsman for William Foster, then the leading architect of Des Moines. George Washington Bird was born September 1, 1854, in New Jersey. His early life or when he came west is unknown, but he was probably educated in Philadelphia. By 1882, he had joined Proudfoot in Foster's office. That same year, the two young architects went northwest to Huron in what is now South Dakota, and first established the firm of Proudfoot & Bird. At that time the Dakota Territory was at the peak of what is referred to as the Great Dakota Boom, when the territory experienced significant investment and population growth. In 1883 the partners relocated to Pierre, though it was not yet the capital. They designed several buildings in Pierre which survive. It was during this time that Proudfoot briefly went east, spending the winter of 1884–85 in the architecture school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After his return in 1885, when the Dakota Boom was beginning to slow, the partners moved south to Wichita, Kansas, then undergoing an even larger boom. They were more successful in Wichita, where they designed the City Hall, the YMCA, several colleges and universities and many homes and businesses. However, by 1890 the boom had collapsed, and in 1891 the partners went even further west to Salt Lake City.
In Salt Lake City the partners formed a partnership with the established local architect Henry Monheim, which was known as Monheim, Bird & Proudfoot. This firm almost immediately won the competition to design the new Salt Lake City and County Building. Monheim died in 1893, and Proudfoot & Bird was reestablished. In addition to the City and County Building, completed in 1894, they designed several homes and other structures in Salt Lake City. In 1895, with the economy in decline, Proudfoot went to Kansas City, and Bird to Philadelphia. In 1896 they returned to Iowa, and reestablished Proudfoot & Bird in Des Moines, where it would remain. In 1898 they won the job to design Schaeffer Hall at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, a project which cemented their reputation in Iowa, and over the next decade became the leading architects in the state.
In 1910 Proudfoot & Bird was merged with the firm of Hallett & Rawson, and became Proudfoot, Bird & Rawson with third partner Harry D. Rawson. In 1913, owing to ill health, George W. Bird retired, though his name was not removed from that of the firm. In 1925 Proudfoot and Rawson were joined by H. Clark Souers as partner, and the firm finally dropped Bird's name and became Proudfoot, Rawson & Souers. In 1928 Proudfoot died, and in 1929 the partnership was further expanded to include Oren Thomas, a school specialist, and became Proudfoot, Rawson, Souers & Thomas. In 1932 Souers and Thomas both retired, and J. Woolson Brooks and Elmer H. Borg, who had joined the firm in 1912 and 1913 respectively, joined the partnership. By this time the Great Depression was well underway and the firm's business was severely reduced. Whereas Souers had invested $50,000 to join the partnership, Brooks and Borg only had to contribute $2,000 each. The new firm was known as Proudfoot, Rawson, Brooks & Borg. When Rawson died in 1934, Brooks and Borg were the sole partners. Following World War II, in 1945, the firm was renamed Brooks-Borg. In 1966 they were joined by Paul Skiles as partner, and the firm became Brooks-Borg-Skiles. It kept this name under several changes of leadership until 2017, when it became BBS Architects | Engineers, which it remains in 2022.

Legacy

Proudfoot & Bird and their successors were the leading architects in Iowa for several decades. Under its founders the firm had a conservative design philosophy, and worked in the popular Revival styles of the time. Early works were designed in the Italianate or Victorian Gothic styles, before the rise in popularity of the Richardsonian Romanesque in the mid-1880s. The architecture at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 spurred the popularity of Beaux-Arts architecture in the United States, and Proudfoot & Bird followed suit. Though other styles were chosen for other buildings, the Classical architecture of the Beaux-Arts movement was the norm in the firm's work until Proudfoot's death. After this, the surviving members of the firm looked to more modern styles, including the Art Deco, Streamline Moderne and International Style during the Great Depression and lead-up to World War II. After the war, Brooks-Borg embraced Modern architecture, was associated with Eliel Saarinen and Eero Saarinen on several projects, and later designed several Brutalist and Postmodern buildings.
A large number of their pre-war buildings which survive are listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. Many of these were listed as part of one 1988 study and multiple property submission. In 1988 there were 25 known surviving Proudfoot, Bird & Rawson buildings in Des Moines alone. Their work was also part of the architecture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

List of works