George F. Hellmuth

Hellmuth was a native of St. Louis and son of architect George W. Hellmuth. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1929 and a master's degree in 1930. He began his career as an architect of the city of St. Louis in 1932, designing civic structures including police stations and bus shelters. He went into private practice in 1949, founding Hellmuth, Yamasaki and Leinweber. In 1954, that firm was succeeded by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum which became the modern firm HOK, which was, in 2018, the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering firm. Its current president is Carl Galioto.