ALLAN J. GELBIN (1929-1994)
Impressed by the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, Gelbin chose to become a Taliesin apprentice in 1949 after his first two years of architectural education at Carnegie Institute of Technology. Completing the apprenticeship in 1953, he then worked as general contractor and supervisor overseeing the construction of three Wright-designed homes in Canton, Ohio, and one in New Canaan, Connecticut. Gelbin established his solo private practice in Connecticut in 1957 and specialized in private residences in the New England region. Realizing a long-held dream, Gelbin published his book Sun, Earth, and Sky: Ideas for a New City in 1989, in which he outlined his theories of city planning.
Gelbin's holidays took him to Canada, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan. He was especially well-traveled along the Eastern Seaboard, having a pilot's license and a private plane.
- "Southport, CT. 8-17-85."
HARRY MOHR WEESE (1915-1998)
Architecture was his professional goal from a very early age and young Harry had settled on Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the time he was twelve. Precocious and slightly hyperactive, Weese was directed to drawing to settle him. As he reported in his oral history "I was always drawing..." After graduating in 1938 he spent a year at the Cranbrook Academy of Art studying city planning and working with Eliel Saarinen, Carl Milles, Harry Bertoia, and Charles and Ray Eames. After serving in the Navy in World War II and spending several years in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Weese opened his own practice in 1947. In Chicago, Weese's distinctive projects include the Time-Life Building, the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the Fulton House rehabilitation. He won national recognition for his design of the rapid rail network for Washington, DC.
The Ryerson & Burnham Archives holds one hundred of his notebooks spanning the years 1937-1988. These notebooks include sketches and commentary for this inveterate traveler's many trips to Europe, India, Africa and Asia. The 1937 notebook documents his 1200-mile bicycle trip across Europe, spending $2.50 a day. With I.M. Pei, Weese toured China in 1973 at the invitation of the Chinese Society of Architects.
- "Soochow," April 1973 [Suzhou, China].
- "Tingshus," 1937 [Courthouse, Nyköping, Sweden].
- Unidentified location, 1973.
- "Malmaison," 1973 [Chateau de Malmaison, France].