The Architecture Expert


If there were a television quiz show about architectural history, William R. Mitchell Jr. 60C would take home the new car, the all-inclusive vacation, and the million dollars all in one episode.

Mitchell has written seventeen books on architectural history and is the founding president of the nonprofit Southern Architecture Foundation. His scholarly expertise earned him a prestigious Arthur Ross Award from the Institute of Classical Architecture/Classical America (ICA), which was presented to Mitchell and four other winners at New York City’s University Club in May (he is pictured above with Ross, who established the awards in 1981). Mitchell’s award was given in the category of history and writing.

“William Mitchell has spawned and renewed the understanding and practice of traditional architecture and its associated arts throughout the American South,” according to the ICA.

A native Atlantan and ninth-generation Georgian, Mitchell was a founding trustee of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in 1973 and founded the Southern Architecture Foundation in 1998. His award-winning publications include Landmark Homes of Georgia, Classic Savannah, Gardens of Georgia, Classic Atlanta, Classic New Orleans, and J. Neel Reid, Jr., Architect.

Mitchell’s library and professional papers are the foundation of the Mitchell Collection, Southern Architecture Foundation archives being established at the Atlanta History Center.

Mitchell earned a BA from Emory in history and went on to graduate school at the University of Delaware. “I have tried to be a credit to Emory,” he says, “especially in history.”—P.P.P.

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