| Albert L. Harris | |
| Birth Place: | Abergynolwyn, Wales |
| Nationality: | American |
| Death Place: | Washington, D.C. |
| Office: | Municipal Architect of Washington, D.C. |
| Term: | 1921–1933 |
| Children: | 2 |
Albert L. Harris (1869 – February 24, 1933) was an American architect who worked primarily in Washington, D.C. He was born in Wales and emigrated to the United States as a young child. He worked for architectural firms in Chicago and Baltimore and then Washington, where he also obtained an architectural degree from George Washington University. He was a part-time professor there while also working for the US Navy and then the city of Washington where he served as the city's Municipal Architect from 1921 until his death in 1933. A number of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Harris was born in Abergynolwyn, Wales, in 1869. Leaving Wales in 1873 with his father for the United States, Harris was next known to be in the Washington, D.C., area in 1890 when he was enrolled in the Arlington Academy, a private secondary school. He left the academy without graduating in 1893 and moved to Chicago, to design residential buildings under Henry Ives Cobb. He was in charge of drafting for two years at E.T. Harris Ornamental Works. After five years in Chicago, he next worked for Wyatt & Nolting in Baltimore before returning to Washington in 1900.
Harris designed firehouses and apartment buildings with Leon E. Dessez and supervised the interior design of the Baltimore city courthouse. He was employed in Washington as a draftsman with Hornblower & Marshall for twelve years. During this time, he worked on the Baltimore Custom House and the National Museum of Natural History, the National Geographic Building, the US Marine Barracks, and the George Washington University Hospital. He worked another seven years for Hornblower & Marshall as a junior architect and supervised the construction of the Army and Navy Club. He was made a partner in the firm in 1911.
He completed a B.S. degree in architecture at George Washington University (GWU) in 1912. Upon graduation, he became an assistant professor of architecture there, and a full professor in 1915. He remained in that role part-time until 1930.
Just before the US entered World War I, he was tasked to supervise the construction of Washington's central heating plant by the Secretary of the Treasury, which at that time directed the construction of Federal facilities. During the war, he was appointed draftsman at the Bureau of Yards and Docks, a branch of the US Navy, from 1917 to 1919, where he wrote design specifications for Navy aviation, ordnance, and submarine bases. At the end of his war service in October 1919, he continued teaching and entered private practice.
He then went to work for the Office of the Municipal Architect of Washington in 1920, and succeeded Snowden Ashford as the city's second municipal architect in April 1921. He was selected by the city commissioners from six candidates, and was one of two who were endorsed for the position by the Washington chapter of the AIA.
He partnered with Arthur B. Heaton in 1924 on the design of a quadrangular plan for the GWU campus and two academic buildings there, Corcoran Hall and Stockton Hall, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Much of his work with the city involved the design of schools. The Washington Commission of Fine Arts suggested that the Colonial Revival style was appropriate for municipal buildings in the city's residential neighborhoods and the majority of his schools and other buildings, such as firehouses, were done in that style. This contrasted the Federal style of the national government buildings in the city's core. One exception was a 1931 addition to the Park View School, designed in 1916 by Snowden Ashford, where Harris followed the original Gothic Revival style.
During Harris's tenure, the school age population of the district was increasing rapidly. The city had an aggressive "Five Year Building Program" in the 1920s to deal with the growth in the neighborhoods. Harris developed a plan for "extensible" schools, that is, schools that were planned in whole but constructed in phases to match the demand for space and the available funding, avoiding awkward additions on to buildings that were not originally envisioned. For example, the Janney Elementary School was constructed in 1925 with the main core containing a library and administrative space, an academic east wing, and a gymnasium and auditorium in the rear. Seven years later, the west wing was added to complete the building as Harris had originally designed it.
His extensible school plan included a Colonial Revival rectangular plan, like Janney, the same layout executed in the Renaissance Revival style, and a U-shaped plan. Each of the block layouts was used three times.
Harris adapted the Colonial style to field houses at city parks, although less formally than the style of his schools since he considered recreations a less formal activity, and the -story building were much smaller than schools. The style for these structures resembled Colonial hall-and-parlor houses of the 1700s. This plan was used six times, including the Twin Oaks Playground and Field House, which is listed on the NRHP and the Mitchell Park Field House, a District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Site and, submitted for listing on the NRHP. For inspiration in the design of the Reptile House at the Washington Zoo, Harris traveled with zoo superintendent William Mann to Europe in 1912 to study similar buildings in major cities there, including London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. He also planned to look at concepts in general municipal design.
Beginning in 1926, he began planning for buildings at Judiciary Square. However, years of trouble slowed Harris's plans as numerous battles with the federal government and Commission of Fine Arts erupted over various issues, including funding and cost, the specific site of buildings. the architectural relationship with nearby Federal Triangle and the Mall, the specific location of courts and offices, the number of buildings, the demolition of neighborhood buildings, and especially the financial difficulties and priorities of the Great Depression. Along with his staff at the Office of the Municipal Architect, Harris continued to work through these issues and design the campus, until he died suddenly in February 1933. Upon his death, Nathan C. Wyeth became Municipal Architect and continued the planning. Construction of the District of Columbia Municipal Center began in 1938 and was completed in 1941.
Harris died suddenly on February 24, 1933, in his home from a heart attack. The first symptoms developed the night before. He was buried in Washington's Glenwood Cemetery.
Harris was said to have an "excellent working relationship" with the Fine Arts Commission, due to his willingness to design buildings in their preferred Colonial Revival style. His predecessor, Snowden Ashford, had preferred Gothic Revival and Elizabethan. The commission, however, was committed to the aesthetic as defined by the McMillan Commission's 1902 plan for the city and publicly opposed Ashford's designs.
After his death, the commission noted that Harris was responsible for "consistently high standards for the design of municipal buildings in D.C., including schoolhouses, fire and police stations, and gas stations". The Washington AIA chapter "praised Albert Harris for his plans for Washington’s public schools." They also praised his willingness to utilize private architects, primarily for elementary schools, to augment the city staff during the construction boom in the 1920.
A week after his death, the Washington Board of Education said: At the same time, the board voted to consider the name "Albert L. Harris" for a new school in the "near future".
Harris was a long time member of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1911, an AIA committee of Harris, Snowden Ashford, and Waddy B. Wood "condemned bay windows as not being in accord with the dignity of architecture which the Capital should maintain." In 1914, another committee of the three, and Glenn Brown first proposed that architects be professionally licensed. Harris himself became the first licensed architect in Washington on April 6, 1925.
While employed by Hornblower & Marshall, he was involved with the following projects:
From 1921 to 1933, Harris is credited as architect of the following municipal structures:
According to the DC Office of Planning, the design of Engine Company 29 "is among the most successful of Municipal Architect Albert Harris."