Harry M. Weese Papers

Born in 1915, Weese enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1938 where he studied city planning under Eliel Saarinen alongside peers such as Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia, and Florence Knoll. Weese established his own firm, Harry Weese and Associates, in 1947. His first prominent work, completed in 1965, was the First Baptist Church in Columbus, Indiana. Weese’s notable built work in Chicago includes the Time and Life Building and the Metropolitan Correctional Center as well as renovations of Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Theater and the Field Museum. Weese’s masterpiece, completed in 1976, is Washington D.C.’s 100-mile Metro subway system, with stations of coffered concrete vaults and undulating, embedded platform lights. Weese, an FAIA fellow, was also known as being a champion of historic preservation and for promoting creative redevelopment strategies for Chicago’s lakefront. Harry Weese and Associates won several national design awards including the AIA’s firm of the year award in 1978. View finding aid.View selected images from this collection.Find all Harry Weese digital images.Harry Weese Oral History. Collection access:Collections may be accessed in the Franke Reading Room of the Research Center at The Art Institute of Chicago, by appointment only. For further information, consult the FAQ. Finding aids by subjectBrowse all finding aidsBrowse images and mediaOral histories Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:archives@artic.edu