Wallace Harrison

Harrison served as director of planning for the United Nations Headquarters in New York, completed in 1952, and was lead architect of the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, which opened in 1966. He was also instrumental in the design of the Empire State Plaza government complex in Albany, New York.

As director of planning, Harrison coordinated an international board of consultants that included Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer to realize the UN Headquarters complex along the East River in Manhattan. He was responsible for synthesizing the competing design proposals into a single buildable scheme.

Yes, through his firm Harrison & Abramovitz, he partnered with Max Abramovitz on many major civic and corporate projects. He also collaborated closely with Nelson Rockefeller on projects including Rockefeller Center renovations and the Albany Empire State Plaza.

Harrison's work is associated with mid-twentieth-century modernism, characterized by clean functional forms and large-scale civic ambition. His projects often integrated monumental sculpture and art, as seen at the Empire State Plaza, which includes works by artists such as Alexander Calder.