page_title: Harry Weese
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Weese / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photgraph taken by me of a house at 141 Kenilworth Ave, In Kenilworth IL 60043 on the National Registry of Historic Places
context_page_description: Harry Mohr Weese was an American architect who had an important role in 20th century modernism and historic preservation. His brother, Ben Weese, is also a renowned architect.
context_section_description: Harry Mohr Weese was born on June 30, 1915 in Evanston, Illinois as the first son of Harry E. and Marjorie Weese. His father was an Episcopalian, and his mother was a Presbyterian. In 1919, the family moved to a house in Kenilworth, Illinois, where Harry would be raised. Weese was enrolled in the progressive Joseph Sears School in 1919. By 1925, Weese decided that he wanted to be either an artist or an architect.
  After graduating from New Trier High School, Weese enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1933 to earn a Bachelor in Architecture degree. Weese also took architecture classes at Yale University starting in 1936. Weese studied under Alvar Aalto at MIT, and fraternized with classmates I.M. Pei and Eero Saarinen. As his schooling was at the height of the Great Depression, Weese avoided studying expensive historical revival styles in favor of more-affordable modern styles. In the summer of 1937, Weese toured northern Europe on a bicycle, fostering his appreciation for the modernist movement.
  Upon his return to the United States, Weese was offered a fellowship at the Cranbrook Academy of Art (sometimes called the "Scandinavian Bauhaus") through Eero Saarinen, whose father Eliel oversaw the school. There, he studied city planning, potter, and textiles while learning more about Modernist principles. He worked alongside other emerging Modernist designers such as Ralph Rapson, Florence Knoll, and Charles Eames.
caption: Harry Weese grew up in this house in Kenilworth, Illinois.
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