[citation needed] John S. Collins, Pancoast's maternal grandfather, was a Miami Beach developer during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.
[4] When Pancoast and his extended family moved to Miami Beach, he worked at the firm Kiehnel and Elliott before opening his own architectural design practice with Cornell fraternity brother Edward Sibbert in 1927.
[5] The Surf Club opened in 1930 on New Year's Eve and became the place in Surfside, Florida where aristocrats, celebrities and statesmen gathered for fashion shows, boxing, parties and gala dinners.
[5][4] Following his grandfather's donation of land that eventually became Collins Park, Pancoast designed a library and center of culture with an exterior covered in tiles of Florida keystone.
Other structures Pancoast designed include the Mead Building[4] in the art deco style on Lincoln Road which originally housed upscale stores such as Bonwit Teller; the Miami Beach Woman's Club in 1933 using the Miami Mediterranean style;[4] the Peter Miller Hotel, constructed in 1936 as an intimate, boutique hotel with fewer than 100 rooms.
[7] From 1944 to 1945 he was engaged by Frederick C. Peters, founder of Plantation, Florida to work on a city plan for the future Broward County community.
[1] In the early 1950s, Pancoast worked on the plans for the Inter-American Cultural and Trade Center (Interama) with Robert Fitch Smith.
[1] That building, initially called the Student Services Center, contained the post office, bookstore, movie theater, soda fountain and barber shop.