Morell & Nichols (firm)

Name

Morell & Nichols

Location

MN

Firm History Sources

Historical Information:
Contributed by Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis
      Arthur Nichols and Anthony Morell began their partnership in 1909. Nichols, born in Springfield, Massachusetts on April 15, 1881, was the first graduate in landscape architecture from MIT (1902). He worked in the office of New York landscape engineer Charles W. Leavitt for seven years (1902-1909) before coming to Minnesota. While working with Morell, Nichols served as a consulting landscape architect for the University of Minnesota (1912-1944), the Minnesota Highway Department (1930-1940), and the Minnesota State Parks Department (1950-1960). He designed the site plan for the Capitol Approach in St. Paul (1944), the University of Minnesota's Northrop Mall, Cambridge and Willmar (Minnesota) State Hospital grounds, and numerous colleges in the area, including St. Catherine's (St. Paul) and the University of Minnesota's Duluth campus. Nichols retired in 1953 and died in Rochester, Minnesota, on January 23, 1970.
Morell was born in France as Anthony Urbanski and migrated to New York about 1904. He worked for Charles Leavitt as a landscape architect, where he met Arthur Nichols. The two men moved to Minneapolis and started their firm in 1910. In the 1920s, Morell served on the Minneapolis Planning Commission in the formulation of zoning ordinances and as secretary of the commission. He died in Minneapolis on October 7, 1924.
The firm became known as Nason, Law, Wehrman, and Knight after both of the original partners left the office. In 2004 the practice exists as Sanders, Wacker and Bergly, Inc..

Related Records

Archival Holdings

Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries, Minneapolis
      Morell & Nichols Papers (N 79)
      The collection is composed of original landscape architectural drawings, financial records (income tax returns, bank books, contracts), specifications, photographs and a small amount of correspondence.
For more information https://www.lib.umn.edu/naa

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