ROBERT LUTHER MYERS, AIA (1926-2016)

Myers was born in Macon GA. He grew up in Winston-Salem, studied at UNC Chapel Hill, earned a BA in Architecture at Cornell in 1950, and earned a 1951 MA in Architecture at Harvard studying under Walter Gropius. He won the 1953 Rome Prize, returned to North Carolina, and worked for Lashmit James Brown Pollock from 1956 until 1961. Then Myers moved to New York and worked for Shreve Lamb Harmon, Charles Luckman, Philip Johnson, and the Eggers Partnership. His last position was with Russell Gibson Van Dohlen in Farmington CT. His last major project before retirement in 1988 was the world headquarters for The Stanley Works in New Britain CT. One of the ten founding members of the organization which became the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, Myers endowed two principal chairs at the Winston-Salem Symphony and donated his 400+ piece art collection to the Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill.

1959 - The Charles and Betty Howell House, 1100 East Kent Road NW, Winston-Salem NC. Designed by Myers for his sister. Myers returned to Winston-Salem in 2012 to live here with the now-widowed Betty Howell.

1964 - The Frank and Anne Cannon Reynolds Forsyth House, 2865 Bartram Road, Winston-Salem NC. Anne was previously married to RJ Reynolds youngest son, Z. Smith Reynolds. Located on four acres originally part of the Reynolds Estate. The clients preferred Modernist design, but having a bad experience with an earlier flat-roofed dwelling, asked Myers to create an alternate roofline. Includes a large indoor pool added in 1975. Jimmy Carter stayed here in 1976. Oprah considered buying it in 2003 to be near her friend Maya Angelou. Sold in 2005 to Mark and Patricia Pegram. Featured on the 2022 NCModernist Winston-Salem Tour. Bottom photo by Michael Blevins.

Sources include: Aubrey Kirby; Heather Fearnbach; Clare Fraser.