User:JPRiley/Biggin

Frederic Child Biggin (October 12, 1869 – October 14, 1943) was an American architect and architectural educator. After practicing architecture in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, he taught at Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Auburn University. He offered the first BSArch at OSU in 1915 and the first BArch at Auburn in 1925, where he was dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts from 1927 until his death in 1943.

Life and career
Frederic Child Biggin was born October 12, 1869, in Middletown, New York to Samuel Biggin and Mabel Biggin, née Hart. He was educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Cornell University (BS in architecture, 1892). After graduation he joined the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1897 when he entered practice. In 1899 he joined the firm of Jacoby & Weishampel of Allentown as a partner. He withdrew from the firm in 1905. The work of Jacoby, Weishampel & Biggin includes Williams Hall (1903) of Lehigh University and the Allentown National Bank building (1905), completed shortly after the partnership was dissolved. Over the next six years Biggin moved frequently around the country, working in offices in each city that he stayed.

In 1911 Biggin was hired by the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Oklahoma State University, to teach its course in architectural engineering. Biggin moved the program away from engineering and towards architecture, and established the school's degree program in architecture, in addition to architectural engineering, in 1915. In 1916 he moved to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Like at Oklahoma, here Biggin sought to modernize the program. Beginning in 1917 he initiated a complete reorganization and modernization of the school. The school under his leadership developed into the foremost architecture school in the south. In 1925 a professional, five-year Bachelor of Architecture degree was first offered, and in 1926 the school was admitted to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. In 1927 the department, which had previously been part of the School of Engineering, was reorganized as a separate School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Biggin was the inaugural dean and would serve in that role until his death in 1943.

Biggin spent many years lobbying the Alabama state government to pass an architect's licensure law, which was finally done in 1931. Biggin served on the Alabama Board of Architects created by that law from its organization until his death.

Biggin joined the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1912 as a member of the Kansas City chapter. In 1916, when he moved to Auburn, he became a charter member of the Alabama chapter. He filled several leadership roles in the chapter and served on national committees. He was elected a Fellow of the AIA in 1939 for his work in education and public service. He was the second Alabama architect to be elected a Fellow under the modern system instituted in 1898.

Personal life and legacy
Biggin was married in 1894 to Mabel Augusta Desh of Bethlehem. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. In Auburn the Biggins lived in a house he had designed and built in 1927. This house is a contributing resource to the Old Main and Church Street Historic District, NRHP-listed in 1978.

Biggin died October 14, 1943, at the age of 74, following an illness of several months.

Biggin Hall, built for the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, was named in Biggin's honor. It was designed by architect Clyde C. Pearson, a 1926 Auburn graduate, of the firm of Pearson, Tittle & Narrows. It is now used by the Department of Art and Art History. Biggin's home is now the Biggin-Woltosz House and is used by the School of Architecture for offices and exhibitions.