User:JPRiley/HEMcClure
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Harlan E. McClure | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 19, 1916 |
| Died | November 1, 2001 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
Harlan E. McClure FAIA (1916–2001) was an American architect and architectural educator who led the architecture school of Clemson University from 1955 to 1984.
Life and career[edit]
Harlan Ewart McClure was born October 19, 1916 in Chattanooga, Tennessee to Alexander Ewart McClure, a civil engineer, and Jeanette (Huffman) McClure. He was raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended the public schools and George Washington University (GWU), graduating with a BArch in 1937. He then spent a year of graduate study at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts before returning to the United States to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he earned an MArch in 1941. During World War II McClure served in the navy and was discharged in 1945.
In 1945 McClure was hired as an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota. He was promoted to associate professor in 1947 and to professor in 1952. As a Fulbright Scholar, McClure spent the year 1952–53 on sabbatical teaching at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. While teaching McClure also practiced. He worked for Minneapolis architects Long & Thorshov until 1947, when he established his own office. In 1948 he formed a partnership, McClure & Kerr, with his former GWU classmate Francis K. Kerr. They were chiefly responsible for the design of homes.
In 1955 McClure was selected to lead the department of architecture at Clemson University following a nationwide search. At Clemson McClure replaced its Beaux-Arts architecture curriculum with Bauhaus principles. In 1956 he was selected to design new buildings to house the engineering and architecture departments, and in 1958 Lee and Lowry Hall were completed, with Lee Hall as the home of the department of architecture. As McClure had given up his practice in 1955 this work was completed in association with architects from Lockwood Greene. In 1958 the department of architecture was made a school, and McClure became its first dean. In 1971 the school was reorganized as the College of Architecture. In 1973 he established the Charles E. Daniel Center for Building Research and Urban Studies in Genoa as a Clemson outpost, and in 1974 a large addition to Lee Hall, designed by McClure and Lockwood Greene, was completed. McClure led Clemson architecture until his retirement in 1984.
Although McClure had given up his architectural practice when he moved to Clemson, he was frequently sought after as a consultant by South Carolina architecture firms, especially the leading firm of Lyles, Bissett, Carlisle, and Wolff. With that firm McClure influenced the design of several of their award-winning projects, including the Forest Lake Club (1964) and the United States Post Office (1968), both in Columbia. In addition to Lee and Lowry, works designed by McClure as an independent architect include the United Church of Mapleton (1958) in Mapleton, Minnesota, St. John's Lutheran Church (1963) in Cherryville, North Carolina, the Self house (1964) in Greenwood and the tricentennial pavilions (1970) at Charles Towne Landing, designed in consultation with Buckminster Fuller. His house for industrialist James C. Self Jr., designed in association with Clemson faculty members engineer Emery A. Gunnin, landscape architect J. Edward Pinckney, sculptor John Acorn and painter Ireland Regnier, has been described by South Carolina architectural historian Alfred Willis as "a demonstration of what Clemson University’s modernist architecture program could produce after less than a decade of operation" and that "[b]y virtue not just of its size but its high aesthetic quality, the Self Residence ranks among South Carolina’s greatest houses."[1]
Personal life[edit]
McClure was married in 1942 to Virginia Varney, and they had three children: Christopher Ewart McClure, Wesley Alexander McClure and Barbara Beth McClure. Both of his sons would become architects, and his daughter a planner. After moving to South Carolina the McClures made their home at Boxwood, a circa 1810 farmhouse in Anderson County near Pendleton. They partially restored and remodeled the house for their use in 1959–60.
Legacy[edit]
Architectural works[edit]
- Harlan E. McClure house, 1323 June Ave S, Minneapolis (1951)
- Ahern house, Minnetonka, Minnesota (1955, unlocated)[2]
- Fairmont High School (former),[a] 714 Victoria St, Fairmont, Minnesota (1955, altered)
- United Church of Mapleton, 201 Troendle St SW, Mapleton, Minnesota (1955–58)
- Lee and Lowry Hall. Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina (1956–58 and 1972–74, NRHP 2010)
- St. John's Lutheran Church, 310 W Church St, Cherryville, North Carolina (1961–63)
- James C. Self Jr. house, 115 Cedar Dr S, Greenwood, South Carolina (1962–64)[1]
- Tricentennial pavilions,[b] Charles Towne Landing, 1500 Old Towne Rd, Charlestown, South Carolina (1970, demolished 2003 and 2005)[3]
Publications[edit]
- Harlan E. McClure, A Guide to the Architecture of the Twin Cities: Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1820–1955 (New York: Reinhold Publishing Company, 1955)
- Harlan E. McClure and Vernon Hodges, South Carolina Architecture, 1670–1970 (Columbia: Clemson Architectural Foundation and the Columbia Museum of Art, 1970)
Notes[edit]
- ^ Designed as a consultant to Hills, Gilbertson & Hayes.
- ^ Designed in consultation with Buckminster Fuller. Badly damaged by Hurricane Hugo but not removed until much later.