Thomas W. Ventulett III, TVS Co-Founder and CNN Center Architect, Dies at 90

Thomas W. "Tom" Ventulett III, the Atlanta-based architect who co-founded Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates and designed the CNN Center, died peacefully on August 24 at the age of 90.

Ventulett co-founded the firm now known as TVS in 1968. Over the following decades, the practice grew into one of Atlanta's most prominent architecture and design offices, with a portfolio spanning convention centers, mixed-use developments and civic projects across the country.

Ventulett was also a watercolorist. His work in that medium ran alongside a career in architecture that left a visible mark on Atlanta, most notably through the CNN Center, the headquarters complex that anchors the city's downtown and became a landmark of broadcast media architecture.

News of his death was first reported by The Architect's Newspaper.

Ventulett's passing marks the end of a founding era for TVS, a firm that continues to operate under the name he helped establish more than five decades ago. His built work in Atlanta — a city that has remade its skyline repeatedly since the 1960s — remains among the most recognizable elements of that urban fabric, and his influence will be measured in the projects the firm carries forward under successors he trained.