Willard C. Byrd and Associates Records 1956-2001

Willard Byrd founded Willard C. Byrd and Associates on March 1, 1956. From 1956 through 2002, the firm performed services for 1019 jobs, primarily in the southeastern United States. The firm was best known for its golf course designs, of which it created over 100. Some of the more notable courses designed by Byrd and Associates were the Atlanta Country Club, Atlanta, Georgia; the Country Club of North Carolina, Pinehurst, North Carolina; Heather Glen Golf Links, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Willow Creek Golf Club, High Point, North Carolina. Along with golf courses, Byrd and Associates projects included housing subdivisions, commercial and industrial planning, resorts and recreational facilities, landscape and site design, campus planning, and new towns. The firm rendered a variety of professional services, such as master planning, site planning, environmental assessment and impact statements, traffic flow, irrigation plans, grading and drainage studies, specifications, quality and cost controls, construction review, land use consultation, contract negotiations for clients, economic projections, computer programming for projects, site location studies, graphics and signage, zoning ordinances and covenants, stormwater management design, and erosion control design.

Willard C. Byrd (1919-2004) was born in Whiteville, North Carolina, on April 12, 1919. He served for three years in the United States Navy during World War II on board a minesweeper. After the war, Byrd enrolled at what was then known as North Carolina State College (North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, later North Carolina State University). He graduated in 1948 from the School of Design at State College with a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture and began a brief career with the Army Corps of Engineers, for which he worked on master plans and site plans for recreational facilities. He then worked for the Federal Housing Administration as a land planning consultant for housing developments, many of which were military family housing projects. These sites were primarily located in North Carolina and Florida. After his work for the federal government, Byrd was employed briefly as a designer for the southeastern office of a landscape architecture and city planning firm. Aside from his work in Byrd and Associates, during his professional career Byrd served as an assistant professor in the Graduate School at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Byrd was also affiliated with a number of professional organizations, including the American Planning Association, the National Golf Federation, the United States Golf Association, the Urban Land Institute, and the Golf Advisory Committee of the Atlanta History Center. He was a fellow in both the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He was a registered landscape architect in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

The Willard C. Byrd and Associates Records document the forty-six-year history of the firm's employment in golf course, landscape, and architectural design, chiefly in the southeastern United States. The records contain more than 10,000 ink and pencil drawings on a variety of media, including drafting film, paper, and tracing paper. They range in size from 8 x 10 inches to over 135 inches in length. The records also include 16 boxes containing further documentation of the firm's work. These boxes contain job prospectuses, reports, brochures, manuals, and advertisements.

The Willard C. Byrd and Associates Records are organized into four series:

• Series 1. Drawings
• Series 2. Project Files
• Series 3. Reference
• Series 4. Appointment Books

• Byrd, Willard C., 1919-2004.
• Willard C. Byrd and Associates.
• Architecture--Plans.
• Golf courses--Design.
• Golf courses--North Carolina.
• Landscape architecture--Southern States.

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[Identification of item], Willard C. Byrd and Associates Records, MC 00356, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Gift of Willard C. Byrd and Associates, 2004 (Accession number 2004-0011)

The following books have been individually cataloged. Please see the NC State University Libraries catalog.

• Bartholemew, Harland, assisted by Jack Wood. Land Uses in American Cities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955.
• Bergman, Ray. Trout. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945.
• Blomquist, H. L. and H. J. Oosting. A Guide to the Spring and Early Summer Flora of the Piedmont, North Carolina. Second Edition. Durham, NC: Seeman Printery, 1936.
• Hamlin, Talbot. Architecture Through the Ages. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1940.
• Kells, Lyman M., Willis F. Kern, and James R. Bland. The Log Log Duplex Decitrig, Slide Rule No. 4081: A Manual. New York: Keuffel and Esser Co., 1943.
• Lynch, Kevin. Site Planning. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press, 1962.
• Meyer, Bernard S. and Donald B. Anderson. Plant Physiology: A Textbook for Colleges and Universities. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1939.
• Pomeroy, Dwight A. Business Law. Second Edition. Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Company, 1939.
• Sloane, Roscoe C. and John M. Montz. Elements of Topographic Drawing. Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1943.
• Storer, Tracy I. General Zoology. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1943.
• Weaver, John E. and Frederic E. Clements. Plant Ecology. Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1938.

Processed by Lois Black, Nathan Crowe, Lawrence Gavin, Stephanie Horowitz, Dawne Howard, Todd Kosmerick, Steven Mandeville-Gamble, Kevin Schlesier, Linda Sellars, Keith Taylor; addition processed and finding aid updated by Shima Hosseininasab, 2021 May.

Encoded by Stephanie Horowitz, 2006