1. Harry Mohr Weese was an American architect who had an important role in 20th-century modernism and historic preservation.
16 Facts About Harry Weese
1. 2.
Harry Weese's father was an Episcopalian, and his mother was a Presbyterian.
3.
Harry Weese was enrolled in the progressive Joseph Sears School in 1919.
4.
Harry Weese took architecture classes at Yale University starting in 1936.
5.
In summer 1937, Harry Weese toured northern Europe on a bicycle, fostering his appreciation for the Modernist movement.
6.
Harry Weese worked alongside other emerging Modernist designers such as Ralph Rapson, Florence Knoll, and Charles Eames.
7.
Harry Weese soon left to join the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and soon after that took a commission as an engineering officer in the United States Navy for World War II.
8.
The Washington Metro in the District of Columbia helped Harry Weese become the foremost designer of rail systems during the peak of his career.
9.
Harry Weese subsequently was commissioned to oversee rail projects in Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Buffalo.
10.
Harry Weese was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1961 and received the Arnold W Brunner Memorial Prize from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964.
11.
Harry Weese was known for his advocacy of historic preservation; he would be 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".
12.
Harry Weese was the prime mover in the preservation, rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of Chicago's Printer's Row neighborhood, converting loft buildings that had housed printing-industry firms into apartments and offices, thus proving the economic viability of repurposing historic urban buildings.
13.
Harry Weese's parents were Protestant Christians, but he himself was non-religious.
14.
The announcement cited the key role of Harry Weese, who conceived and implemented a "common design kit-of-parts" which continues to guide the construction of new Metro stations over a quarter-century later.
15.
Harry Weese is best known as the designer and architect of the first group of stations in the Washington Metro system.
16.
Harry Weese designed over 80 single home and residential buildings, including:.