Born in 1922, George Matsumoto grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of
California at Berkeley in architecture.  Disrupted by the relocation of Japanese-Americans during
World War II, Matsumoto completed his undergraduate degree at Washington University in
Saint Louis.  With a scholarship to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Matsumoto
studied under Eliel Saarinen for his graduate degree.  After graduation in 1945 with honors, he
worked for the firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago and in 1946 he joined the firm of
Saarinen and Swanson, during which time he, along with Terry Waugh and David Greer, won the
"Better Chicago Contest" with a cash prize of $10,000.

After a year of private practice in Kansas City, Missouri (Runnells, Clark, Waugh and
Matsumoto), the publicity from the Chicago award led to his appointment as an instructor at the
University of Oklahoma.  Shortly thereafter, in 1948, Henry L. Kamphoefner, then head of
Oklahoma's architecture program, was appointed first dean of the School of Design at North
Carolina State University.  Matsumoto, with several other faculty and students also left
Oklahoma with Kamphoefner.  During his tenure at the School of Design between 1948 and
1961, Matsumoto won more than thirty awards for his residential work and his achievements in
design were widely published.

In 1961 he returned to San Francisco to continue teaching at the University of California at
Berkeley, and later opened a successful private practice with commissions in commercial,
educational, recreational work as well as campus and community planning.  In 1973 he was
elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.  Matsumoto is currently retired and lives
in Oakland, California.

The Matsumoto Gift

The Papers and Drawings of George Matsumoto, FAIA represent the first major acquisition by
the NCSU Libraries' Special Collections Department under a library initiative to collect
selectviely, preserve and make available architectural records for research and study.

Architectural records include job files, correspondence, sketches, drawings, photographs, and
other related materials similar to those on display in this exhbition.  These materials offer
permanent documentation of the history of architecture and architectural practice in North
Carolina.

Using a variety of architectural records from this important archival collection, this exhibit
surveys the work of George Matsumoto, FAIA, as an innovative and talented North Carolina
architect who profoundly influenced the state's built environment.  The Matsumoto Collection is
avaible to researchers in the Special Collections Department, located in the D H. Hill Library on
the N. C. State campus.