The firm of
Proudfoot & Bird was originally established in
Huron,
Dakota Territory in 1882 by William Thomas Proudfoot (1860–1928) and George Washington Bird (1854–1950). Though they practiced variously in
South Dakota,
Kansas,
Utah and
Iowa, they are best known for their works in Iowa. William T. Proudfoot (who later went by Willis) was born May 2, 1860, in
Indianola, Iowa, to Elias Proudfoot, a carpenter, and Martha Ann (Barnett) Proudfoot. He attended the local schools, and by 1880 was working as a draftsman for
William Foster, then the leading architect of
Des Moines. George Washington Bird was born September 1, 1854, in
New Jersey. His early life or when he came west is unknown, but he was probably educated in Philadelphia. By 1882, he had joined Proudfoot in Foster's office. That same year, the two young architects went northwest to
Huron in what is now
South Dakota, and first established the firm of Proudfoot & Bird. At that time the
Dakota Territory was at the peak of what is referred to as the Great Dakota Boom, when the territory experienced significant investment and population growth. In 1883 the partners relocated to Pierre, though it was not yet the capital. They designed several buildings in Pierre which survive. It was during this time that Proudfoot briefly went east, spending the winter of 1884–85 in the architecture school of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After his return in 1885, when the Dakota Boom was beginning to slow, the partners moved south to
Wichita, Kansas, then undergoing an even larger boom. They were more successful in Wichita, where they designed the City Hall, the YMCA, several colleges and universities and many homes and businesses. However, by 1890 the boom had collapsed, and in 1891 the partners went even further west to
Salt Lake City. In Salt Lake City the partners formed a partnership with the established local architect
Henry Monheim (1824–1893), which was known as
Monheim, Bird & Proudfoot. This firm almost immediately won the competition to design the new
Salt Lake City and County Building. Monheim died in 1893, and Proudfoot & Bird was reestablished. In addition to the City and County Building, completed in 1894, they designed several homes and other structures in Salt Lake City. In 1895, with the economy in decline, Proudfoot went to Kansas City, and Bird to Philadelphia. In 1898 they won the job to design Schaeffer Hall at the
University of Iowa in
Iowa City, a project which cemented their reputation in Iowa, and over the next decade became the leading architects in the state. In 1913, owing to ill health, George W. Bird retired, though his name was not removed from that of the firm. In 1925 Proudfoot and Rawson were joined by H. Clark Souers (1888–1970) as partner, and the firm finally dropped Bird's name and became
Proudfoot, Rawson & Souers. In 1966 they were joined by Paul Skiles (1921-1991) as partner, and the firm became
Brooks-Borg-Skiles. It kept this name under several changes of leadership until 2017, when it became
BBS Architects | Engineers, which it remains in 2022. ==Legacy==