No list of significant New York City architects would be complete without the addition of Wallace K. Harrison, who had a hand in many of the city’s most celebrated institutions and buildings—among them Rockefeller Center, the United Nations Headquarters, the master plan for Lincoln Center, and the New York Hall of Science in Queens.
Lincoln Center may be Harrison’s best-known project; he was responsible for corralling the various architects who contributed to the finished product of Lincoln Center (including Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, and Pietro Belluschi), but he also designed the Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1966. He also had a long relationship with Nelson Rockefeller, working with the tycoon (and former vice president) on projects like the Rockefeller Apartments in Midtown, and—of course—Rockefeller Center.
To learn more about the modernist architect’s prolific career—which also included works outside of NYC, like the Corning Museum of Glass and the Empire State Plaza in Albany—check out the video above.