Skip to Content

Harry M. Weese Papers

A work made of notebooks, architectural drawings, correspondence, handwritten notes, manuscript, typescript, printed matter, photographic material, photocopies, ephemera, realia, drawings, legal documentation, financial documentation, clippings, and scrapbook..

Image actions

  • A work made of notebooks, architectural drawings, correspondence, handwritten notes, manuscript, typescript, printed matter, photographic material, photocopies, ephemera, realia, drawings, legal documentation, financial documentation, clippings, and scrapbook..

Date:

c.1915-2004 (bulk 1937-1985)

Artist:

Harry Weese (1915-1998)
Harry Weese Associates

About this artwork

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 subject
Browse all finding aids
Browse images and media
Oral histories

Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:
[email protected]

Status

Currently Off View

Department

AIC Archives

Artist

Harry Weese (Architect)

Title

Harry M. Weese Papers

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1915–2004

Medium

Notebooks, architectural drawings, correspondence, handwritten notes, manuscript, typescript, printed matter, photographic material, photocopies, ephemera, realia, drawings, legal documentation, financial documentation, clippings, and scrapbook.

Dimensions

28 boxes, 1 portfolio, 2 oversize portfolios and flatfile materials: W.: 701.1 cm (276 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Shirley Weese Young, Marcia Weese, and Kate Weese, 2006; Ben Weese and Stanley Allan, 2011.

Reference Number

2006.4

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share