Wallace Kirkman Harrison (1895–1981)
Wallace Kirkman Harrison, born 1895 in Worcester, Massachusettes, was an American twentieth-century architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, and participated in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He is best known for executing large public projects in New York City based on a long friendship with Nelson Rockefeller, for whom worked as an adviser. His architectural partner from 1941 to 1976 was Max Abramovitz. In 1931 Harrison established an 11 acre (45,000 m²) summer retreat in West Hills, New York, which became a social and intellectual center of architecture, art, and politics. Frequent visitors and guests included Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Moses, Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, and Fernand Léger, who waited out part of World War II.
Important Buildings by Wallace Kirman Harrison:
United Nations Headquarters complex, coordinating the work of an international cadre of designers, including Sven Markelius, Le Corbusier, and Oscar Niemeyer, among others
The Time-Life Building at Rockefeller Center, New York City
The Exxon Building at Rockefeller Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, coordinating the work of Pietro Belluschi, Gordon Bunshaft, Philip Johnson, and Eero Saarinen, among others
The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York
The Rockefeller Apartments
The Battery Park City complex, New York City
LaGuardia Airport, New York City
The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College
The First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, Connecticut
The New York Hall of Science at the 1964 New York World's Fair
Hilles Library, Harvard University
The National City Tower, Louisville, Kentucky
Trylon and Perisphere for the 1939 New York World's Fair
Erieview Tower, Cleveland, Ohio.
