"Architecture is 10% art and 90% business." -- A. G. Odell

Odell (left) with Al Cameron.

From Progressive Architecture, May 1957 - a huge feature on Odell's work.

News 14 Carolinas coverage of Lassiter House, four months away from demolition.  TMH's national endangerment alert helped bring this house a new owner in May 2011.

ARTHUR GOULD (A. G.) ODELL, JR.,
FAIA, PE (1913-1988)

Odell grew up in Concord NC. He attended Duke University starting in 1930 then transferred to Cornell University, graduating in 1935.  After additional training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, he did a grand tour of the Continent and returned to New York City to work with Wallace K. Harrison, who would later head the team that built the United Nations building. He also worked with industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the man who gave the Studebaker its classic aerodynamic lines. Odell  came to Charlotte in 1939 and set up a one-man office. During WWII he served in the US Army Corps of Engineers.  After the war, he built one of the largest and most influential architectural businesses in North Carolina, Odell Associates, which continues today.

According to Charlotte historian Dan Morrill, "Odell had nothing but disdain for the architecture he observed when he arrived in Charlotte in the late 1930s. 'There was nothing here," said Odell, "that illustrated the honesty of stone as stone, steel as steel, glass as glass. Everybody was still wallowing in the Colonial heritage.'  Odell became Charlotte’s principal champion of the International style and devoted his considerable talents and energies to reshaping the local urban landscape."

Odell was President of AIANC from 1943-54 and became the first national AIA President from North Carolina in 1965. HIs residential work was under the radar, done only for close friends and large corporate clients.  

In 1973, a number of Odell's staff left to form Clark Harris Tribble and Li.  Facing health problems and another "palace revolt," he wisely sold most of his stock in 1979 to a younger management team.  He retired in 1982 but continued to come into the office, even when that required a nurse.

In the Triangle, his most well-known building is the trapezoidal Blue Cross Blue Shield building in Chapel Hill, below.  According to Michael Warner, hired by Odell in 1966, Odell thought this was his firm's best work. The principal designer for the Blue Cross building was Odell architect and sculptor Charles McMurray.

Additional Resources:  Odell Archives at the UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library.

1925 - His own house at 2149 Sherwood Avenue, Charlotte.  Odell did not design the house but extensively remodeled it over his career.  Sold in 2003 to Daniel D. Phillips.  Sold in 2006 to Stephen and Sarah Geis.

1947 - The Kenneth S. Shupp Residence, supposedly on Sharon View Road, Charlotte.  This was the very first Modernist house in Charlotte.  Not sure if it is still in existence.  The Shupps originally lived at 424 Eastover in a 1930's house designed by Martin Boyer.

1949 - The Emerson P. and Emily Cross Jones House, 1105 Clay Street, possibly an Odell design in Franklin VA. The Jones and the Odells were friends.  Needs verification.   Sold in 2011 to Fred Taylor. 

1952 - The Robert (Bob) and Elizabeth Lassiter House, 726 Hempstead Place, Charlotte. Commissioned 1951.  Steel beams support the roof and eliminate the need for load-bearing interior walls, thereby enabling large open spaces to predominate throughout the interior.  A particularly ingenious scheme was an arrangement whereby the dining table could be set in the kitchen, complete with food and adornments, and slid through the wall into the dining room.  Appeared in Better Homes and Gardens, September 1956.  Charles McMurray did an addition in the 1970's.  Included a saltwater pool at one point.  Was going to be destroyed in 2011.  TMH, Historic Charlotte, and Modern Charlotte launched a national demolition alert, and the house was sold in June 2011 to John and Leslie Culbertson.  Matthew Benson of Meyer Greeson Paullin Benson in Charlotte will design a renovation in keeping with the Odell design.  Ted Cleary will be the landscape architect.

1952 - The Ted Schramm House, 151 Ingleside Drive, Concord NC. Sold to Pamela and Daniel McDonald.

About 1953 - The A. G. Carpenter House, 2708 Sedgewood Circle, Charlotte.  Has been destroyed and replaced by this cul-de-sac of houses, above.

1954 - The Rose and Phillip Gossett House, aka the Jackson-Bright House, 555 Hempstead Place, Charlotte.  Sold to Tom Bright.  Sold to Max L. Jackson.  Sold in 1995 to Raleigh Hortenstine.  Sold in 1998 to James W. Thompson.  Has been expanded and remodeled to such an extent the original design is unrecognizable.  Sold in 2005 to Lisa McGeough.

Around 1955 - The Robert W. Work Residence, Charlotte. Do you have an address? These photos appeared in Progressive Architecture, May 1957.  When the Works moved to Chapel Hill (and built a new Modernist house), it took five years to sell this one.  The Works later built a third Modernist house with Brian Shawcroft. 

Year Unknown - A house in the Cloisters area, Charlotte.

Year Unknown - Hampton Road, Charlotte NC.

Year Unknown - House in Roaring Gap NC.

Year Unknown - House in Concord NC. Has been converted to a medical clinic.

Year Unknown - The Henry Faison House in Charlotte NC.  Traditional design.

Year Unknown - The Francis Moffett Hipp House, Greenville SC.
 Hipp was president of Liberty Insurance.

Year Unknown - The Odell family boathouse, outside of Concord NC on Lado Lake.  Destroyed.

Year Unknown - Colvillle Road, Charlotte.

Year Unknown - aka English Gardens, Charlotte.  Destroyed around 2004.