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Harrison Albright (May 17, 1866 – January 3, 1932) was an American architect best known for his innovative design of the West Baden Springs Hotel in Orange County, Indiana, which boasted the largest free-spanning dome in the world at the time of its construction.
Biography
Born in the Ogontz neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Albright was educated in the local public schools and at the Peirce College of Business and Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia. In 1886, he began his architecture business designing residential and public projects in Philadelphia.
He moved to Charleston, West Virginia in 1891 and was architect for the State of West Virginia in addition to designing residential projects. As State architect he designed an annex to the State Capitol, a state asylum at Huntington, West Virginia, the Miners' Hospital in Fairmont, West Virginia and buildings at Shepherd University and the Preparatory Branch of West Virginia University at Keyser.
In 1901, he was hired by Indiana hotelier Lee Wiley Sinclair to design the landmark West Baden Springs Hotel which included the 200-foot-diameter (61 m) steel and glass dome which would be the largest free-spanning dome in the world until 1913 and the largest in America until the construction of the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955.
In 1905, he moved his architectural practice to California, working in Los Angeles and San Diego, as early proponent of reinforced concrete construction. Albright's 1905 Annex to the Homer Laughlin Building on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was the city's first reinforced concrete building.
John L. Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, was employed in the Albright firm.
Harrison Albright retired from architecture for health reasons in 1925 and died in 1932.
Works
Albright's designs include:
- One Bridge Place, Charleston, West Virginia, 1898
- Upshur County Courthouse, Buckhannon, West Virginia, 1901
- West Baden Springs Hotel, 1902
- Hotel Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 1904
- expansion of Homer Laughlin Building Annex/Lyon Building, Los Angeles, California, 1905
- Santa Fe Freight Depot, Los Angeles, California (now home to the Southern California Institute of Architecture), 1907
- Coronado Library, Coronado, California, 1909
- U. S. Grant Hotel, San Diego, California, 1910
- Eli P. Clark Hotel, Los Angeles, 1912
- Spreckels Theater Building, San Diego, California, 1912
- Golden West Hotel, San Diego, 1913
- Spreckels Organ Pavilion, San Diego, California, 1915
- Bank of Coronado Building, Coronado, California, 1917
- Adams School, Maricopa, Arizona
- Spreckels Mansion, Coronado, California
- Waldo Hotel, Clarksburg, West Virginia
- Columbus Power House, Columbus, Indiana
External links
- Classicism and Concrete: Harrison Albright's Architectural Contributions to Coronado by Cynthia B. Malinick
- Emporis listing
- Pacific Coast Architect Database listing
- Philadelphia Architects and Buildings database (extensive information)
- Glorietta Bay Inn-former Spreckels Mansion
- Photos of four Los Angeles Albright buildings