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Harry Weese
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Harry Mohr Weese (June 30, 1915 - October 29, 1998) was an American architect, who was born in Evanston, Illinois in the Chicago suburbs who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation. His brother, Ben Weese, is also a renowned architect.
arry Weese studied under Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1938, and went on to study city planning while on a fellowship at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.
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Encyclopedia
Harry Mohr Weese (June 30, 1915 - October 29, 1998) was an American architect, who was born in Evanston, Illinois in the Chicago suburbs who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation. His brother, Ben Weese, is also a renowned architect.
Background
Harry Weese studied under Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1938, and went on to study city planning while on a fellowship at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Weese was also influenced by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, whom he met at Cranbrook. He built primarily in the modern architectural style, but integrated other styles as he felt appropriate for the project. Out of Cranbrook, Weese joined the major architectural and engineering firm, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. During World War II, Weese served as an engineer on a U.S. Navy destroyer, and 1947, he started his own architectural firm. Weese is also well known for his firm advocacy of historic preservation and was remembered as the architect who "shaped Chicago’s skyline and the way the city thought about everything from the lakefront to its treasure-trove of historical buildings." Weese also served as a judge for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design competition.
Works
Other well known works include:
- The United States Embassy Building in Accra, Ghana.
- Arena Stage, Washington, D.C..
- Time-Life Building, Chicago, Illinois.
- First Baptist Church, in Columbus, Indiana.
- Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist in Chicago, Illinois.
- The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- The Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, widely considered one the Midwest's best examples of brutalist architecture but slated for demolition soon.
- The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, formerly known as the Elvehjem Museum of Art.
- Mercantile Bank, Kansas City, Missouri.
- Westin Crown Center Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri.
- The former U.S. Embassy to Ghana in Accra.
- Fulton House at 345 N. Canal Street in Chicago. Converted 19th century 16-story cold-storage warehouse building to condominium building.
- River Cottages at 357-365 N. Canal Street in Chicago. Sloped, structurally expressive facade responds to the angle and cross bracing of the railroad bridge directly across the river.
- William J. Campbell United States Courthouse Annex in downtown Chicago (formerly known as the Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago.) Federal temporary holding prison which has no window bars, instead each cell is provided with a vertical 5" slot window. Weese was mandated to follow then new federal prison architectural guidelines, like cells having no bars and by original design each prisoner had his own room.
- Middletown City Building, Middletown, Ohio.
- Sterling Morton Library, The Morton Arboretum.
- O'Brian Hall at the State University of New York at Buffalo
- The Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston
Weese also led numerous restoration projects including:
Further reading
- - The Art Institute of Chicago
- Waldheim, Charles; Ray, Katerina Ruedi, , Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN 0226870383
- Weese, Kitty Baldwin, Harry Weese Houses, Chicago Review Press, August 1987
External links
- - Art Institute of Chicago.
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