P. M. Heffernan papers

P. M. (Paul Malcolm) Heffernan (1909-1987) served on the faculty in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech beginning in 1938. Succeeding Harold Bush-Brown as Director of the School in 1956, Heffernan served in that position until his retirement in 1976.

Paul Malcolm Heffernan was born in Decorah, Iowa, on January 23, 1909 to Walter A. and Laura D. (Bethuram) Heffernan. He received his schooling in Sherburn, Minnesota and Ames, Iowa. After graduating from Ames High School in 1925, he attended Iowa State University (then Iowa State College), completing the B.S. degree in Architectural Engineering in 1929. In that year, Heffernan received a summer fellowship at the Foundation for Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Lake Forest, Illinois. This was followed by a nine-month traveling fellowship in American Architecture from Conde Nast, during which he traveled throughout the United States. Returning to Iowa State, Heffernan received an M.S. in Architectural Engineering in 1931. After graduation, he became an instructor in Freehand Drawing and Elementary Design at Iowa State, where he remained for a further two years. In 1933, Heffernan entered the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Remaining there for two years, he received a Master of Architecture degree in 1935.

In 1935, Heffernan became the recipient of the 28th Paris Prize of the Society of Beaux-Arts, which enabled him to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris for three years. During this period, in addition to his studies he traveled extensively in Europe, undertaking photography and sketching in most of the major European countries. He completed his studies in Paris in 1938.

Heffernan returned to the United States in 1938 to take up a position on the faculty of the Department of Architecture (later the School of Architecture) at Georgia Tech. He remained at Tech throughout the remainder of his professional life. After Harold Bush-Brown's retirement in 1956, Heffernan became the Director of the School of Architecture, a position he held until his own retirement in 1976. In addition to his teaching and research, he became a partner in the firm of Bush-Brown, Gailey, and Heffernan, a firm made up of Tech Architecture faculty that was responsible for the design and building of many campus buildings, including the Textile Engineering Building, the Library, and the first Architecture building. He was very active in professional associations, especially the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). He received numerous awards from these and other professional associations during his career: He was named an AIA Fellow, and he was awarded the Bronze Medal of the Georgia Association of AIA in 1982. Heffernan traveled extensively during his career as well as after his retirement, often traveling with other architects on architectural excursions. His travels included an extended trip to Japan and the Far East, several trips to Mexico, and regular journeys to Europe, during which he often revisited France.

Heffernan remained unmarried throughout his life. His sister, Virginia Heffernan Hancock, resided in Atlanta at his address beginning in the early 1940s. Initially, when Heffernan moved to Atlanta, he lived in a house on Williams Street. In the late 1940s he moved a few blocks closer to the Tech campus, to a house at 166 Fifth Street. He had the downstairs remodeled into a basement apartment, and in the early 1960s undertook a remodeling of the main part of the house. Heffernan remained in this house until his death on April 9, 1987.