Harwell Hamilton Harris, (July 2, 1903 – November 18, 1990) was a modernist American architect, noted for his work in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
that assimilated
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an and American influences.
He lived and worked in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
from 1962 until his death in 1990.
Biography
Harris was born in Redlands, California in 1903. He began his studies at
Pomona College
Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...
but left after a year to study sculpture at the Otis Art Institute, now
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...
. In 1928, he began apprenticing under architect
Richard Neutra with whom he was associated until 1932. He worked alongside
Gregory Ain
Gregory Samuel Ain (March 28, 1908 – January 9, 1988) was an American architect active in the mid-20th century. Working primarily in the Los Angeles area, Ain is best known for bringing elements of modern architecture to lower- and medium- ...
, and the two of them assisted one another as independent designers after leaving Neutra in the mid-1930s.
Adopting Neutra's modernist sensibility, Harris merged the vernacular of California with a sensitivity to site and materials characteristic of the American
Arts & Crafts Movement. In his residential work of the 1930s and 1940s, primarily in California, Harris created a tension and a continuum between exterior and interior with continuous rooflines. Learning from
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
, he designed interior spaces that are often based on the cruciform plan. His work is characterized by a careful use of materials and clean, fluid spaces.
From 1952 until 1955, Harris served as the Dean for the School of Architecture of the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
. The group of modernist architects he attracted to the faculty there came to be known as
The Texas Rangers. In 1955, he left the university and established a private practice in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, which he maintained until 1962 when he moved to
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...
where he re-established his practice and began teaching at
North Carolina State University. He retired from teaching in 1973 but continued to practice architecture from his home studio in Raleigh until shortly before his death there on November 18, 1990. His home and studio at Raleigh, the
Harwell Hamilton and Jean Bangs Harris House and Office, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The ACSA (
Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
Association may refer to:
*Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal
*Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry
*Voluntary associatio ...
) honored Harris with the ACSA Distinguished Professor Award in 1986–87.
Harris' archive is located at the University of Texas.
Buildings and projects
* Pauline Lowe House, Altadena, CA (1934)
* Fellowship Park House, Los Angeles, CA (1936)
*
John Entenza House, Los Angeles, CA (1937)
*
Weston Havens House, 255 Panoramic Way
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
, NRHP-listed
* Havens House, Berkeley, CA (1939)
* Wylie House, Ojai, California (1948)
* Cranfill Apartments, Austin, Texas (1960)
Eisenberg House Dallas, Texas from
Texas Archive of the Moving Image
The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film h ...
Notes
Further reading
* Caragonne, Alexander, ''The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993.
* Germany, Lisa, ''Harwell Hamilton Harris''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
*
* Nelson, George, and Henry Wright. ''Tomorrow's House''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945.
External links
"Harwell Hamilton Harris and Fellowship Park" by John CrosseGuide to the Harwell Hamilton Harris Architectural Drawings 1964*
ttp://www.architecturallysignificanthomes.com/Architecture/Architects/Architects/architect_harwell_hamilton_harris.asp Photographs and Description of Harris' Eisenberg House, Dallas, Texas (1957)br>
"Harwell Hamilton Harris" at GreatBuildings.comInterview of Harwell Hamilton Harris, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.Harwell Hamilton Harris collection, Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Harwell Hamilton
1903 births
1990 deaths
Modernist architects
Fellows of the American Institute of Architects
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne members
Otis College of Art and Design alumni
20th-century American architects
Pomona College alumni
People from Redlands, California
Architects from California
Architects from North Carolina
University of Texas faculty
North Carolina State University faculty