William Ludwig Baumgarten was born 1885 January 25 in Mährisch Schönberg (Šumperk), Moravia (later the Czech Republic). He studied in Vienna, receiving a B.S. from the State College of Architectural Engineering in 1904 and a diploma in architecture from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1910. After working as a draftsman in Vienna and serving as an artillery captain in World War I, Baumgarten was an assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1919 to 1924. He designed many buildings in Vienna and elsewhere in Austria in his career there, to international acclaim, and his designs were published in prominent American and European architectural journals.

Baumgarten left Austria for the United States in 1940, and became a naturalized American citizen five years later. He became an assistant professor of architecture at the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (later North Carolina State University) in 1940, an associate professor in 1947, a full professor in 1953, and retired as professor emeritus in 1958. Baumgarten became a registered architect in North Carolina in 1945, and was a member of the American Institute of Architects, the North Carolina Chapter of the AIA, the Raleigh Council of Architects, as well as a number of European honorary and professional organizations. He died in Raleigh 1959 February 18.