Harold Spitznagel
Harold Theodore Spitznagel (December 7, 1896 – April 26, 1975) was an American architect from South Dakota. Spitznagel was best known for residential and institutional architecture, including the original Mount Rushmore visitor center. His styles included Prairie School, Art Deco, and Moderne architecture. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, was posthumously inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and has been called the "foremost 20th-century architect" of the state of South Dakota. Life. Early life and education. Spitznagel was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on December 7, 1896, to Mary and Charles Spitznagel. He graduated  from Washington High School in 1916. For two years he attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1925. At school he won the American Institute of Architects and Arthur Spayd Brooke design awards. For a brief time after graduation, Spitznagel was an assistant instructor in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Career. Spitznagel worked in Indianapolis for six months, then moved to Chicago. There he was an architect first for Burnham Brothers (commercial design, 1926), then Graven and Mayger (movie theaters, 1926-1927), and finally Schmidt, Garden, and  Erickson (commercial design and hospitals, 1927-1929). The latter firm was influential in Chicago's Prairie School style of residential architecture. In 1930 at the beginning of the Great Depression, Spitznagel returned home to Sioux Falls and opened an office in the Western Surety Building on Eighth Street and Main Avenue. He remodeled this office into the Art Deco style. Spitznagel and his firms (Harold Spitznagel Architects, Harold Spitznagel & Associates, Inc., and The Spitznagel Partners, Inc.) designed many buildings, especially in South Dakota, in the 1930s through 1970s. His first work was residential and small retail, and in 1936 the  city commissioned him to design the Sioux Falls City Hall. This Moderne building included limestone plaques, granite carvings, frescoes and—controversially—no cornice. Spitznagel incorporated a significant amount of art in the building design, influenced by Palmer Eide of Augustana College. Spitznagel and Eide collaborated over the next decades on buildings such as Jehovah Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In the late 1930s, Senator Peter Norbeck asked Frank Lloyd Wright to submit a design for a new Custer State Park lodge. Wright toured the site but declined to participate. The park board then chose Spitznagel's firm to  design the lodge, which included rustic and Deco elements. During World War II, Spitznagel was Director of Housing for Sioux Falls Army Air Field. Spitznagel's mid-career was highlighted by institutional buildings: civic structures like city halls and post offices, arenas in Sioux Falls and Huron, and high-profile park buildings for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Custer State Park. The Mission 66 Mount Rushmore visitor center was finished in 1957 in a collaboration with Cecil Doty, and featured in the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film "North by Northwest". Spitznagel designed hotels, country clubs, and movie theaters. Educational buildings  were a particular specialty, and Spitznagel was the architect for buildings on the campuses of the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, and Augustana College. His firm took on many sacred architecture projects, including an award-winning church in Saint Paul, Minnesota: Jehovah Lutheran. Spitznagel retired in June 1972 and died on April 26, 1975. Legacy. Spitznagel served as president of the South Dakota chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1954–1955 and vice president of the national organization from 1966 to 1970. His papers are in the archives of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Augustana College  occasionally bestows a Harold Spitznagel Medal for Achievement in Art to students who demonstrate excellence in their field.