This collection consists of architectural drawings for five projects: the Gregory Mayer & Thom and Society of Arts and Crafts buildings in Detroit, the Industrial Mutual Association (IMA) Auditorium in Flint, and the University of Michigan's Chemistry and Rackham buildings in Ann Arbor.
The firm was founded in 1853 in Ohio by self-taught architect Sheldon Smith. Two years later, he moved to Detroit, Mich. In 1903, the firm became one of the first multidisciplinary firms offering engineering as well as architecture and becoming Field, Hinchman & Smith. In 1907, it was renamed as Smith, Hinchman & Grylls. In 1971, the firm merged with Johnson, Johnson & Roy (JJR), a firm focused on landscape architecture and environmental science. Smith, Hinchman & Grylls kept its name until 2000, when the firm became SmithGroup. The firm became SmithGroup JJR in 2011.
Since the Great Depression, which forced Smith, Hinchman & Grylls to lay off most of its employees, it has grown to become one of the largest and oldest architectural and engineering firms in the United States, with offices in Ann Arbor, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Madison, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as a Chinese office in Shanghai. Some of the firm's best work came during the 1920s under head designer Wirt C. Rowland, who had earlier worked for Albert Kahn. Landmark buildings designed by Rowland include the Buhl, Penobscot, and Union Trust (now Guardian) buildings in downtown Detroit. Other notable projects in the firm's long history include the Old Detroit Opera House, Henry Ford's Piquette Avenue Plan, the University of Michigan's Rackham School of Graduate Studies and Central Campus Master Plan, NASA's Lunar Sample Receiving Laboratory, the Defense Intelligence Agency headquarters, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's headquarters.
