Wallace K. Harrison, architect

About this book

Drawing on oral memoirs, and interviews with associates, clients, and other architects, Newhouse traces the history of Harrison's professional career from its humble beginnings in New England to his studies in Paris, his apprentice years in New York, and his association with the Rockefellers. Harrison contributed to the design of the Rockefeller Center, the United Nations complex, the Albany Mall, and also planned and built structures of lesser stature: private houses for the Rockefeller family, the First Presbyterian Church in Connecticut, and the first aluminium skyscraper in Pittsburgh. At once biography, architectural interpretation, and social and urban history, the volume describes the modernist transformation of New York City. Newhouse also explains the difficulties of reconciling architectural creativity with the construction of a great city. ISBN 0-8478-0644-8: $45.00.