Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

American landscape architect and town planner. Frank Arthur (apparently more commonly known as F.A.) Cushing Smith received degrees in landscape architecture and city planning from Cornell University (1912) and Harvard University (1914). He lived in Wilmette, Illinois, for many years, from the 1920s until his death in 1981 at the age of 94.

Professionally active in the fields of landscape architecture and town planning from the early 1920s, Smith taught at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and at the University of Massachusetts. He was a Wilmette Park Commissioner in the 1950s and he was elected president of the Chicago Horticultural Society in 1953. He was a consultant to the Chicago Park District and he was also a long-time editor of the journal American Landscape Architect.

Early in his career he entered the international competition, Design for the Town Plan of Dublin, promoted by the Civics Institute of Ireland in 1914. The only submission from the United States, he received an honourable mention for his proposed scheme. The original drawings for his entry are now held by the IAA (Acc. 2011/116.1-3).

On his death on 9 May, 1981, he was survived by his wife Helena; two sons, F. Cushing and Bruce Cushing; two brothers, a sister, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

The architectural records for landscapes by  F.A. Cushing Smith & Associates [c.1916-1969] are held by the Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Ill.



References

All biographical information from correspondence with Patrick Leary, Curator, Wilmette Historical Museum, 22 August 2011, and his obituary in the Chicago Tribune, 11 May, 1981.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for SMITH, FRANK ARTHUR CUSHING #


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, TOWN PLAN
Date: 1914-1916
Nature: Entrant in the international Entrants in the international Design for the Town Plan of Dublin competition promoted by the Civics Institute of Ireland. Received honourable mention.
Refs: P. Abercrombie & others, Dublin of the Future (1922), 50-51.