William Hamilton Arthur Architect

William Hamilton Arthur Architect, Inc. is a 3rd-generation, independent firm for Architecture and Planning, originating during the height of an economic slow-down in 1962. Using its experience, dedication and sacrifice to the project, the client and the environment, this firm provides services throughout South Florida and the Caribbean.

After the dissolution of one of Miami's most respected mid-century architectural firms—Polevitzky, Johnson & Associates, WHA Architect's original founder William H. Arthur III, an apprentice of Igor B. Polevitzky, took-on the bulk of the firm's continuing work.

First commissions for the new firm included Phase I of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and Nuclear Fallout research for the Kennedy Administration. Arthur, who's formal education came from the University of Illinois, held a adjunct professor position at the University of Miami School of Architecture while simultaneously producing designs for restaurants, offices, retail buildings & even U.S. power plant sites; adding an important, yet unpublicized component to his firm's workload during the 1960s & 70s.

As Miami expanded throughout the 1980s & 90s, Arthur diversified his firm's commissions through his two sons, designing and constructing more than 2,500 public, private, commercial and industrial projects worldwide for its Miami clients including Eastern Airlines, Turnberry & Schiff Properties, Courtelis Company, Publix, Saglo, Equity One, Allstate and Merrill Lynch. Certainly one of the most prolific firms in Miami, Arthur's office forged a strong foundation for the current position held by his grandson, William H. Arthur IV.

Reinstating the original company name more than fifty years later, William expounds on his grandfather's mid-century traditions of passive energy design, open-air environments and the type of atmospheric transparency that characterizes the finest architecture of the region. Using a special license granted upon him by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008, William also works in Havana, Cuba, examining his grandfather's work and how buildings there function without the use of air-conditioning, bringing those traditions back to the United States.

William's work represents an important cultural significance, as he uses his firm to contribute to the impression of a seamless continuity between architects across the Florida Straits. William does this with the same spirit and dedication to the city as his grandfather did fifty years ago, following the belief that "The few architects of today who design and build fine architecture, achieve these accomplishments through experience, dedication and sacrifice to the project, the client and the environment..." —William H. Arthur III