Fine Arts
1966

Please note: The biography and photograph are from the commemorative program for the 1966 North Carolina Awards ceremony.

A. G. Odell, Jr. receives a North Carolina Award in the field of fine arts in recognition of his preeminence as an architect. Dynamic and imaginative, this Charlotte man is one of those transforming the North Carolina and nationwide landscape. His buildings speak to us of our time; yet from them emanate a sense of place, a feeling of the continuity of a cherished past. A recent example is the soaring Wachovia Bank and Trust Company building in Raleigh. Though seeming to float on the twentieth-century air, there are touches-a breath of classicism in its form, the elegance of its interior-that are eloquent reminders of the American heritage. St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, the Concordia Church in Conover, the R. J. Reynolds Company's Whitaker Park at Winston-Salem, the Wilson Junior High School in Charlotte-all are rooted in the past, yet embody the present, and foreshadow our tomorrow. Outside North Carolina, his many world-wide honors and awards were climaxed two years ago, when he was the first Southerner in the more than hundred-year history of the American Institute of Architects to be elected to its presidency.  Last May, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him a member of the White House Conference on Natural Beauty. His advice on highway beautification, on government buildings, and on large- scale architectural ventures, is avidly sought. A graduate of Cornell University who later studied in Paris, this native of Concord looms increasingly larger on the national and international scene.