Todd Tibbals (1910March 22, 1988) was an American architect who was active in the

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

area in the middle part of the twentieth century.

Early years

Tibbals was born in 1910 to a successful engineer and entrepreneur, Charles E. Tibbals (1872–1961). His father was a professional mining engineer and manager of the Royal Elkhorn Coal Company of

Prestonsburg, Kentucky Prestonsburg is a small home rule-class city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Kentucky, United States. It is in the eastern part of the state in the valley of the Big Sandy River. The population was 3,255 at the time of the 2010 censu ...

. In 1923 the family moved to

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

where Tibbals' father pioneered in the candy vending business.

Education

Tibbals attended the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he was a hard working student. When assigned a task to draw part of a house, Tibbals would draw the entire house and notate the drawing with ''Tibbals Does It Again''. His instructors, finding this presumptuous, would give him hell.''Interview with Paul Snouffer'', July 1, 2006, by George C. Campbell, Worthington, OH Tibbals graduated in 1932.

Architecture career

Tibbals began practicing architecture in

in 1935. By 1939 he had designed his own home at 995 Woodhill Drive in

Grandview Heights, Ohio Grandview Heights, or simply Grandview, is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 8,085 at the 2020 census. The city was originally part of Marble Cliff, one of the first suburbs of Columbus, which settled as a comm ...

, which was featured in the November 1940 ''Better Homes and Gardens'' magazine: He established an office at the corner of 15th Avenue and High Street and named his firm Todd Tibbals and Associates. Tibbals and his associate Noverre Musson both won Architects Society of Ohio awards in 1942 for private residences they designed. Musson was a fellow Ohio State Graduate, and had studied for two years under

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

. Other members of the firm included Wilmer Nieb, Arthur Dupre,

Charles W. Lewis Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

and Mary Garrison. Nieb and Dupre were architects, Lewis supervised construction and Garrison designed interior blandishments. Tibbals firm designed nine homes which were replicated throughout the Colonial Hills and Dales subdivision in

Worthington, Ohio Worthington is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, and is a northern suburb of Columbus. The population in the 2020 Census was 14,786. The city was founded in 1803 by the Scioto Company led by James Kilbourne, who was later elected to ...

in 1942, a pioneering suburban development funded by the

Defense Homes Corporation The Defense Homes Corporation was created on October 23, 1940 to finance housing for war industry workers, and existed through 1942.

. This was a major commission for the 30-year-old architect. In 1945 he renamed the firm to Tibbals, Crumley and Musson with new partner George Crumley. Tibbals served as the President of the Building Industry Association of Ohio in 1949. In May 1960, Tibbals was elected President of the Executives' Club of Columbus. At that time he was President of the Columbus Lumber Company. In 1963 he designed the first senior living and assisted care community in the nation, First Community Village. An avid golfer, he was a member of the Senior Golf Association and played on the winning team in the first Pro-Am Golf Tournament in

. Tibbals died at the age of 78 on March 22, 1988.

Major works

* 995 Woodhill Drive,

Colonial Hills Colonial Hills is a subdivision of 873 single-family homes located in the city of Worthington, Ohio, a northern suburb of the state capital, Columbus. Built by the Defense Homes Corporation to meet the needs of World War II production and the pos ...

1942 * Westland Lazarus Store, 1962 * First Community Village,

Upper Arlington, Ohio Upper Arlington, often known by its initials U.A., is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, on the northwest side of the Columbus metropolitan area. The Old Arlington neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ...

, 1963 * The

Ohio Bell The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, now doing business as AT&T Ohio, is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Ohio and parts of West Virginia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. Its headquarters is the Ohio Bell Building at 750 Huron Ro ...

Building,

* The

Ohio State School for the Deaf Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Drake Union The Drake Performance and Event Center is located at Ohio State University. It was a student activity center named Drake Union. The center is located on the west campus of Ohio State between Morrill Tower and Lincoln Tower off the east banks of ...

, 1972 * Fine Arts Building,

Notes

*''Houses With a Past ... Doorways With a Future'' Better Homes and Gardens, November, 1940, pg. 26. *The Columbus Dispatch, ''Community is Planned by Todd Tibbals Firm'', October 11, 1942, Pg. 5C. *The Columbus Dispatch, ''Executives' Club Elects Todd Tibbals'', May 30, 1960, Pg. 6A. *The Columbus Dispatch, ''Charles Tibbals: Father of Developer Dead at 89'', September 29, 1961, Pg. 28A. *The Columbus Dispatch, ''Obituary for Todd Tibbals'', March 25, 1988, Pg. 9C.

References