George Rodney Willis (August 11, 1879 – January 22, 1960), was an American architect associated with the Prairie School and the Oak Park, Illinois studio of Frank Lloyd Wright who thereafter had a successful career in California and in Texas.
During his years with Wright, he worked with draughtsmen and architects who were important practitioners of Prairie School architecture, including Barry Byrne, William Eugene Drummond, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts and Walter Burley Griffin.
I know that each one of them was then making valuable contributions to the pioneering of the modern American architecture for which my father gets the full glory, headaches and recognition today!
In 1911, he moved to San Antonio, Texas and was employed by Atlee B. Ayres until 1916, where he produced Prairie Style homes for Frank Winerich (1913) and Lonnie Wright (1914-1917).
Among Willis' San Antonio works are the Lawrence T. Wright house (1914-1917), houses in Alamo Heights and Monte Vista, and a grouping of four small apartments at the corner of Bandera Road and E. Skyview, providing fine Texas example of Prairie School architecture.
[8] Architect Willis also designed or had input in a series of San Antonio landmarks: Builders' Exchange Building; Bexar County Courthouse; San Antonio Municipal Auditorium (1926); San Antonio Country Club (ca 1920) original building (with Atlee B. Ayres); Palace Theatre (1923); Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Warehouse and Office Building (1923); and El Conquistador Tourist Hotel (1927); and Brackenridge Park Amphitheater.