Harrison, Wallace Kirkman

Harrison, Wallace Kirkman, 1895–1981, American architect and city planner, b. Worcester, Mass. Harrison designed the Trylon and Perisphere, the structures that came to symbolize the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1945 he entered into partnership with Max Abramowitz (1908–2004), who was later famed for his design of Philharmonic Hall (later renamed Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Columbia Univ. law school (both: 1962). Harrison was responsible for numerous large buildings, such as those for Alcoa in Pittsburgh (1952) and the Time-Life (1960) and Exxon (1973) buildings, both in New York City. He was probably the most effective large-scale coordinator in American architecture. His projects included Rockefeller Center, the UN Headquarters (1947–53), and the World's Fair of 1964 in New York City and the South Mall (1963–78) in Albany, N.Y.

Bibliography

See biography by V. Newhouse (1989).

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Harrison, Wallace Kirkman 

Born Sept. 28, 1895, in Worcester, Mass. American architect.

Harrison studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1945 he became a partner in the architectural firm of Harrison and Abramowitz. He collaborated on the designs for Rockefeller Center, the United Nations headquarters, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, all in New York. He also designed the Alcoa Building in Pittsburgh (1952) and the Phoneix Mutual Insurance Building in Hartford (1963), both with M. Abramowitz, as well as the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1966).

Harrison effectively makes use of the achievements of modern architecture and engineering. However, his buildings are eclectic in conception and are designed with commercial success in mind.