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Albert Simons (1890 – 1980), had an immensely influential sixty-year career as an architect and preservationist in Charleston, South Carolina, where he is best known for his extensive preservation work and architectural design. He played a key role in the Charleston Renaissance, wherein he would help create many nationally prominent preservation functions such as the zoning ordinance for the historic district, the first such ordinance in America, with municipal austerity, and the first Board of Architectural Review. As a professor at the College of Charleston for over 20 years, he started the School of the Arts and is honored yearly through the Simons Medal of Excellence.

Early Life & Family
Born in 1890, Albert Simons was descended from a long line of influential Charleston families. His father, Dr. Thomas Grange Simons, was a physician and a public servant who encouraged public health through the advocacy of proper sewers and infrastructure. Simons’ uncle, William Martin Aiken, was a very successful architect who designed many large classical building projects, such as “The Old Post Office Pavilion” in Washington D.C.

Albert Simons enrolled at the College of Charleston for his first year and completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation he traveled through Europe and Northern Africa studying architecture, and finished his trip studying at the Atelier Hébrard in Paris. During his travels, Simons created hundreds of wonderful travel sketches and watercolors, fulfilling the Beaux-Arts-instilled desire to learn through sketching great examples of architecture. Upon returning to Charleston in 1915, he became one of the first instructors of architecture at the Clemson School of Architecture. During this time, Simon’s worked briefly as a partner in the firm of Todd, Simons and Todd, until he volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army during WWI. Simon’s also volunteered to serve in France in WWII.

Simons & Lapham
On July 8th, 1920, when Albert Simons was 30 years old, he joined forces with Samuel Lapham VI to create the firm “Simons & Lapham.” Their work focused mainly with traditional homes, but did industrial, religious, educational, public, transportation, and restoration buildings. Even though during the Great Depression, the firm proved to be very successful. Their main commissions came through federally sponsored work, like the College of Charleston gymnasium or large plantation projects funded by wealthy northerners.

Throughout the years though, Simons received local and national acclaim for work in the area of architectural design, preservation, and city planning. Samuel & Lapham worked actively with the Charleston City government to protect and restore historic homes and would be extensively involved with the American Building Survey. Some of the firm;s most famous work included assistance with restoration of the famous “Rainbow Row”, the renovation of the Planter’s Hotel on Church St., the Dock Street Theater, and the design of the new Memminger Auditorium. In addition to their work, both partners co-edited books of detailed historical research on the architecture of Charleston including, The Octagon Library of Early American Architecture, Vol 1: Charleston, SC (1927) and Plantations of the Carolina Low Country (1939).

Other Achievements
In Simon’s years of work in Charleston, he helped create the first historic district in America, the first Board of Architectural Review (BAR), and worked actively as a Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He was a founding member and played a key role in the Society for Preservation of Old Dwellings, known today as the Preservation Society of Charleston, and as a leading member on the team that produced This is Charleston, a building-by-building study of the historic peninsula. Simons would also serve on the boards of most of Charleston’s civic and cultural institutions, being a board member of the College of Charleston, the Charleston Museum, the Charleston Library Society, St. Michael's Church, and the Charleston Poetry Society.

Simons Medal of Excellence
Albert Simons began teaching at the College of Charleston in 1924, and created the first Art History course at the College later that year. He continued to teach at the college until 1948. He helped this single course evolve into the School of the Arts. Today, the school’s building is named in his honor, Albert Simons Center for the Arts. After the 20th anniversary of the College of Charleston’s School of the Arts, the Simons Medal of Excellence was established to honor qualified individuals who have excelled in one or more of the areas in which Albert Simons excelled, including civic design, architectural design, historic preservation and urban planning. Past recipients have included: The Hon. Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. (2010), John D. Milner, FAIA (2011), Andres Duany, FAIA, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (2012), Allan Greenberg and HRH Prince Charles of Wales (2013), Richard Jenrette and Thomas Gordon Smith in (2014), Antoinette J. Lee (2015), and Robert A. M. Stern (2016).