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Wallace K. Harrison




Wallace Kirkman Harrison ( September 28 1895 Worcester, MassachusettsDecember 2 1981 New York City ), American twentieth-century Architect .

Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center , and Harrison is best known for executing large public projects in New York City and upstate, many of them a result of his long and fruitful personal relationship with Nelson Rockefeller . Architecturally, Harrison's major projects are marked by straightforward planning and sensible functionalism, although his residential side-projects show more experimental and humane flair. 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 was a very early example and workshop for the International Style in the United States, and 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 by painting a mural at the bottom of Harrison's swimming pool.

Harrison's major projects include: