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Architect Harvey Wiley Corbett

Harvey Wiley Corbett (1873-4/21/1954)

Harvey Wiley Corbett (1873-1954), the son of physicians Elizabeth Wiley Corbett and Samuel James Corbett, was born in San Francisco, California in 1873. He attended the University of California-Berkeley and, in 1895, graduated with a degree in engineering. Corbett entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1896 where he studied under Jean-Louis Pascal and immersed himself in a design process based on mastery of past architectural styles. In 1900, he received his diploma from the Ecole and was awarded medals for ability in architecture, mathematics, modeling, and freehand drawing. In the same year, Corbett designed and oversaw the construction of the administration building for the Compagnie des Tramways Electriques in Geneva, Switzerland. Following travels in France, Italy, and England, Corbett returned to the United States and worked as a draftsman for Cass Gilbert through 1903.

In 1903, Corbett formed a partnership in New York with F. Livingston Pell during which he made his presence known as a designer. The first two major commissions received by Corbett & Pell were the Maryland Institute (College of Art) in Baltimore, Maryland (1905-08) and the Springfield (Massachusetts) Municipal Group (1908-13); both commissions were winning entries in architectural competitions. The Municipal Group, which paired neoclassical temple fronted buildings with a tall Italian Renaissance tower, reflected Corbett's background in Beaux-Arts design and planning.

While working on these two projects, the firm also entered another competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Masonic Guild. The competition required the architects to design a Masonic Temple for a site at the corner of Clermont and Lafayette Avenues in Brooklyn to house local Masonic lodges and York Rite bodies including the Knights Templar. Fourteen New York area firms entered the competition, and Pell & Corbett, in association with Lord & Hewlett, won the commission.! They created a 100'-square building, utilizing neoclassical elements and polychrome terracotta in an inventive manner. The creativeness of the design brought national attention to the building and its architects.

After this period of early, notable commissions, Corbett ended his partnership with Pell and entered one in 1912 with Frank J. Helmle, which would last until Helmle's retirement in 1928. During their partnership, Corbett's architectural expression further developed and blossomed. He did not work in any one particular stylistic mode as none dominated in the United States in the early-twentieth century. As with many of his contemporaries, he also thought deeply about modernism in American architecture and shared these insights, not just through his designs, but through lecturing and writing as well. By the time of his partnership with Helmle, he was already teaching design at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and at Columbia University's School of Architecture. His approach to modern architecture focused on the potential of the skyscraper, but also incorporated elements of zoning and accommodated various modes of transportation, automobiles, airplanes, and even zeppelins.

In time, Corbett became known, in particular, as the architect-champion of the skyscraper. Helmle & Corbett received a number of commissions for multistoried commercial buildings. In 1916, the firm was hired to design the thirty-story Bush Tower for a site on 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan for the owners of Brooklyn's vast Bush Terminal. This building debuted Corbett as an influential skyscraper designer and theorist. From this point onward, Helmle & Corbett designed many skyscrapers and multistoried structures in America and abroad.

Corbett also started to write articles emphasizing the modern needs of industrialized America. For Corbett, the potential of steel construction did not just allow taller buildings, but ones that also emphasized verticality. It was his opinion that the vertical was "more attractive than the horizontal," and America was "a new country, unhampered by tradition, free to move in almost any direction dictated by commerce or social innovations;" based on these ideas, Corbett saw skyscrapers as the logical American architectural expression.

Corbett whole heartedly (sic) supported New York's 1916 zoning law, which called for skyscrapers with set- backs to allow for more light at street level; the building silhouette would become an iconic image of the 1920s. In August 1923, he wrote an article for Pencil Points, an architectural drafting periodical, that explained how the zoning legislation required architects to be more creative with their designs to suit both the regulations and the demands of the owner. He saw the legislation as a call for American ingenuity and his own designs provided a viable model for application. Corbett's writings, coupled with Hugh Ferriss's illustrations, helped to quell the controversy over skyscraper designs by advocating set-back skyscrapers as the way of the future.

After Helmle's retirement in 1928, Corbett was associated with various architects on two notable skyscraper developments. He and D. Everett Waid designed the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company North Building in 1928 on a site immediately adjacent to the insurance company's iconic Met Life Tower (1909), which was the tallest building in the world until 1913. As planned, the North Building would rise 100 stories and reclaim the record, but the Great Depression intervened and only the base of thirty stories was ever completed. Corbett was also senior partner in a firm with Wallace K. Harrison and William MacMurray, which lasted until 1935 when Harrison departed. Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray was one of three architectural firms initially involved in the development of Rockefeller Center.

Given Corbett's interest in modern American architecture, it is not surprising that he became involved in two World's Fairs having a particular emphasis on technology. He was the chairman of the Architectural Commission for Chicago's "A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-34) and also chaired the Advisory Committee of Architects, which formulated the theme for the New York World's Fair (1939-40). Corbett's fascination with projects having a massive scale extended to several large civic projects. He and Charles B. Meyers provided the design for Manhattan's Criminal Courts Building (1938-41). After World War II, Corbett was the chief architect for the design and construction of Amsterdam Houses (1947-48), thirteen apartment buildings intended to provide up-to-date accommodation for low-income citizens and, notably, was one of New York's pioneering integrated public housing initiatives.

Corbett was active in New York's architecture scene through his death on April 21st, 1954. He was an accomplished practitioner and was recognized during his lifetime with numerous honors and awards. Just a month before his death, Corbett received one from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.