Harry Weese

Norton's new book the Architecture of Harry Weese by Robert Bruegmann, with Kathleen Murphy Skolnik, now available. Weese's Pentagon City station, photographed by Ben Schumin, November 24, 2004.

Washington D.C.’s 100 mile metro system; the Time Life Building in Chicago; the First Baptist Church, in Columbus, Indiana; the Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (widely considered one the Midwest’s best examples of brutalist architecture) the  Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago’s Loop (also in the brutalist style), and a striking triangular building intended to hold prisoners awaiting trial: these are the works of Harry Weese.

Many of us are familiar with his friends and contemporaries, including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Ralph Rapson and Paul Rudolph, but Weese is far less familiar. Harry Weese was a dominant force in 1960s and 70s American architecture. His work was rational and austere, usually made of concrete. Buildings are usually dense, heavy and massive, epitomizing brutalist style architecture, In contrast, his use of light and open space was triumphant; leaving one feeling simultaneously oppressed by the building yet liberated by the space and light.

"View to the southwest, showing the ramp to the courtyard level on the right and the triangular Council Chamber on the left. Hedrich Blessing photograph, HB39171, ca. 1975, Chicago History Museum."

This Fall a new book has hit the stores: The Architecture of Harry Weese by Robert Bruegmann and Kathleen Murphy Skolnik. The book reviews the oeuvre of one of America’s most gifted and prodigious post-war architects. This is the first monograph of Weese’s work, and it stands as a testament to his reputation as a visionary architect. This book offers a thorough retrospective of his work ranging from small but highly inventive houses to large scale urban planning commissions such as the Washington DC Metro.

"Harry Weese's cross section sketch of a vaulted subway station for Washington, D.C., transit system. July 1996. Courtesy of Stanley Allan."