Willard C. Byrd and Associates.

Willard C. Byrd and Associates, founded in 1956, designed golf courses, housing developments and landscapes in the southeastern United States, focusing in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Willard Byrd founded Willard C. Byrd and Associates on March 1, 1956. From 1956 through 2002, the firm performed services for 1019 jobs, primarily in the southeastern United States. The firm was best known for its golf course designs, of which it created over 100. Some of the more notable courses designed by Byrd and Associates were the Atlanta Country Club, Atlanta, Georgia; the Country Club of North Carolina, Pinehurst, North Carolina; Heather Glen Golf Links, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Willow Creek Golf Club, High Point, North Carolina. Along with golf courses, Byrd and Associates projects included housing subdivisions, commercial and industrial planning, resorts and recreational facilities, landscape and site design, campus planning, and new towns. The firm rendered a variety of professional services, such as master planning, site planning, environmental assessment and impact statements, traffic flow, irrigation plans, grading and drainage studies, specifications, quality and cost controls, construction review, land use consultation, contract negotiations for clients, economic projections, computer programming for projects, site location studies, graphics and signage, zoning ordinances and covenants, stormwater management design, and erosion control design.

Willard C. Byrd (1919-2004) was born in Whiteville, North Carolina, on April 12, 1919. He served for three years in the United States Navy during World War II on board a minesweeper. After the war, Byrd enrolled at what was then known as North Carolina State College (North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, later North Carolina State University). He graduated in 1948 from the School of Design at State College with a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture and began a brief career with the Army Corps of Engineers, for which he worked on master plans and site plans for recreational facilities. He then worked for the Federal Housing Administration as a land planning consultant for housing developments, many of which were military family housing projects. These sites were primarily located in North Carolina and Florida. After his work for the federal government, Byrd was employed briefly as a designer for the southeastern office of a landscape architecture and city planning firm. Aside from his work in Byrd and Associates, during his professional career Byrd served as an assistant professor in the Graduate School at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Byrd was also affiliated with a number of professional organizations, including the American Planning Association, the National Golf Federation, the United States Golf Association, the Urban Land Institute, and the Golf Advisory Committee of the Atlanta History Center. He was a fellow in both the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He was a registered landscape architect in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.