There’s a small bank branch in rural Georgia that’s widely admired by modern architecture enthusiasts for its futuristic design.
The problem is that no one seems to know the architect of the Pineland Bank drive-thru branch that opened in 1966 in Alma, Georgia, about 3 1/2 hours southeast of downtown Atlanta. That’s led George Smart to put on his detective hat.
“We are like the Scooby-Doo of architectural research,” Smart told CoStar News.
When he's not resembling the cartoon dog who solves mysteries with a group of friends, Smart is an architectural historian and CEO of US Modernist. That's a Durham, North Carolina-based nonprofit organization that advocates for the preservation of structures designed in modern styles.
His role as a historic-preservation cheerleader is not easy. Modern and mid-century modern buildings are often located on property that’s valued at more than the structure itself, according to US Modernist. That frequently leads to the demolition of significant modernist buildings.
In addition, many modernist buildings seem to be widely despised by the public — legislation was filed in Congress this summer to require federal buildings be designed in traditional styles that promote Western ideals. The group singled out as especially loathsome federal buildings designed in the brutalist style, like the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The Pineland Bank branch in southeast Georgia would seem to have much broader appeal than the brutalist buildings in Washington. Smart described the mid-century modern bank as looking like something straight out of “The Jetsons,” an early 1960s cartoon TV series.
Pineland Bank's eye-catching branch is designed in a similar way to other Googie-style banks, such as a former Huntington Bank branch in Canton, Ohio. Googie was a popular architectural style from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. The famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is considered a classic example of Googie style.
Space Age Inspiration
One of Smart’s colleagues recently contacted the son of a former president of Alma Exchange Bank, a predecessor to Pineland Bank, to query him about the Georgia building’s origins. It turns out the branch was inspired by the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
The fair was known for its Space Age motifs, and the Unisphere, the 12-story stainless steel model of the Earth, was built specifically for the event. The New York State Pavilion structure, located on the 1964 World's Fair site, in particular seems to have influenced the Alma bank architect.
“Banks during the 1960s, they believed that the future was great and everything was just going to be fantastic and they wanted to show the public that they were not some stodgy old bank and that they were engaged with the future,” Smart said.
However, the former bank president's son didn’t know the name of the architect that his father hired. The branch opened in April 1966.
Al Ross, CEO of Pineland Bank, did not respond to a request to comment from CoStar News.
Smart is confident he will solve the mystery because he’s done it before. One of Smart’s crowning achievements was identifying the whereabouts of a Gregory Ain-designed house that was displayed in the 1950s on the grounds of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At some point, the house disappeared and, for decades, no one knew what happened to it. Smart in 2021 tracked it down in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, where it’s used as a private residence.
Smart thinks he’ll solve the mystery of the Pineland Bank branch architect, too.
“We usually figure it out,” he said.