George Hellmuth was the supersalesman at the big St. Louis architectural firm that designed the National Air and Space Museum in Washington as well as a global assortment of office buildings, airports, hospitals, courthouses and stadiums, including the United Center and Comiskey Park in Chicago.
Mr. Hellmuth, who was 92, died Nov. 5 in St. Louis.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said Dawn O'Malley, a spokeswoman for the firm, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK).
In 1955, Mr. Hellmuth joined fellow architects Gyo Obata and the late George Kassabaum to found HOK, which originally had 26 employees. Obata designed, Kassabaum managed and Mr. Hellmuth found work--so much work that HOK now has a staff of more than 1,600 in 24 offices around the world.
He was "a person of great energy and enthusiasm who was able to carry that firm very far," said Cynthia Weese, dean of the architecture school at Washington University in St. Louis.
HOK's National Air and Space Museum, an airy, modern building, houses such cherished symbols of discovery as the Apollo 11 command module. It is among the most heavily visited attractions on the National Mall.
In addition, HOK revolutionized the way millions of Americans experience professional sports with its new-but-old-fashioned ballparks, such as Oriole Park at Camden Yards, that broke the mold of the stadium as a concrete monolith. Comiskey Park, which has been faulted for its upper-deck sightlines and a sterile design, was a notable exception to that trend.
Born in St. Louis, the son of an architect, Mr. Hellmuth received his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from Washington University, in 1928 and 1930, respectively. In 1940, he moved to Detroit to work for an architectural and engineering firm that specialized in designing industrial buildings during World War II.
In 1949, Mr. Hellmuth co-founded the firm of Hellmuth, Yamasaki and Leinweber, which had offices in Detroit and St. Louis. The firm, which designed the Lambert Field airport in St. Louis, disbanded in 1955. Mr. Hellmuth co-founded HOK in that same year.
Starting with schools, a staple for architects in the Baby Boom era, HOK expanded into other niches, following Mr. Hellmuth's philosophy that the firm should specialize. His secret in winning jobs, though, was identifying the person who would select the architect.
"In his marketing efforts, he would pick out the person he decided was the key to getting the job and he would focus on that individual," said HOK general counsel Paul Watson. "He would explain to that individual how he could best solve (their) problem."
Mr. Hellmuth was HOK's board chairman until 1979, when he was named chairman of the firm's international subsidiary. He held that post until retiring in 1986.
Among the firm's other notable projects are the campus of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and the new Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago (for which HOK was a co-designer).
Mr. Hellmuth is survived by his wife, Mildred; four sons, George, Nicholas, Theodore and Daniel; a daughter, Mary Dwyer; 14 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services have been held.