Russell T. Pancoast

Russell Pancoast (February 13, 1899 – November 28, 1972) was an American architect and city planner who designed hundreds of buildings throughout Florida and the city master plan for Plantation, Florida. He and his father, Thomas J. Pancoast drew the city master plan for Miami Beach, Florida.

Personal life and education Born in 1899 and raised in Camden, New Jersey, Pancoast was second of three boys of Katharine and Thomas J. Pancoast, a hardware merchant. His family was Quaker and he graduated from the George School in 1918, then his family moved to Miami Beach, where his father joined his wife's father developing real estate. Pancoast and Sibbert was short lived however; following the 1926 Miami hurricane Sibbert and his wife packed up and left Florida, returning to Brooklyn. During the early 1930s, he worked with his father on city planning for Miami Beach.

Other structures Pancoast designed include the Mead Building

From 1944 to 1945 he was engaged by Frederick C. Peters, founder of Plantation, Florida to work on a city plan for the future Broward County community. The city was incorporated April 23, 1953. An article in the Miami Herald on August 1, 1954, covered the new city's plan, describing Plantation as "The City of the Future". Pancoast served as a special advisor to the Plantation zoning commission from 1953 to 1969. Pancoast was architect for the 1957 Fillmore Miami Beach, the concert venue/auditorium that is part of the Miami Beach Convention Center. It was the broadcast location of The Jackie Gleason Show, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Dick Clark Show from the 1950s thru the 1960s. The Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants during the 1960s originated at the Fillmore.

Pancoast and his associates designed the Spessard Holland Law Center at the University of Florida which opened in 1969. The project was honored by the American Institute of Architects (Florida Chapter) with the 1966 honor design award. The college was renamed the Levin College of Law in 1999.

Professional activities Pancoast served as a chair of the Board of Architecture and Interior Design for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation which certifies and licenses architects and interior design professionals.

He was also a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) beginning in 1929. He served a term as president and secretary of the South Florida chapter and was elected an AIA Fellow in 1951. He was posthumously awarded AIA's Silver Medallion in 1972.

Pancoast was a visiting lecturer at the University of Florida in Gainesville for the College of Architecture & Fine Arts.