Criticism
“When one looks back over the years of Wolf’s practice one cannot be struck by the way his architecture has matured through to complex layered civic works, such as the Center of Regional Government in Toulouse. As he has grown older, his work has deepened ... Perhaps, in the last analysis, the most singular quality of his expression resides in it's sublime attitude towards light ... hermetic skin-like material appears quite literally to suffuse with the light that emanates from its surface.”
“Harry Wolf is one of the most gifted architects today, indeed in the context of the world only a relatively small number of people know how important he is to architecture. He is a big talent, a rationalist with poetic impact to his work. Not just meat and potatoes functionalism but a major spiritual commitment.”
“...to a modern society that is full of errant energy, Wolf offers his quietly platonic buildings as ameliorates. They absorb rather than reflect chaos and exude harmonious order. Most important perhaps is Wolf’s preoccupation with the physical measure of man – a concern that Le Corbusier also expressed in his modular system – as the basis for creation of a structure that will appeal to human emotions, intellect and psyche.
“Wolf is an architect in search of a platonic essence ... in his drawings for 747 South Flower Street he seeks to unify a massing, plan, structural system and human proportion through geometric solution that, like a genetic code will give form and meaning to every part of the building."
“The surprising work of Harry Wolf, an architect pursuing his own patient search ... finding a language of geometry and silence in several works achieve an unusual, singular richness”
“Indeed, the whole project pursues at the various scales the objective of re-establishing a relationship between man and nature, at the same time creating a new sense of space and time; all this is communicated in a subtle and hardly perceptible way. Not a clear sign, but a symbol, something revealing itself slowly and in the course of time.”
Kenneth Frampton
Critic and Historian, Ware Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University
“Harry Wolf is one of the most gifted architects today, indeed in the context of the world only a relatively small number of people know how important he is to architecture. He is a big talent, a rationalist with poetic impact to his work. Not just meat and potatoes functionalism but a major spiritual commitment.”
Allen Temko
San Francisco Chronicle
“...to a modern society that is full of errant energy, Wolf offers his quietly platonic buildings as ameliorates. They absorb rather than reflect chaos and exude harmonious order. Most important perhaps is Wolf’s preoccupation with the physical measure of man – a concern that Le Corbusier also expressed in his modular system – as the basis for creation of a structure that will appeal to human emotions, intellect and psyche.
“Wolf is an architect in search of a platonic essence ... in his drawings for 747 South Flower Street he seeks to unify a massing, plan, structural system and human proportion through geometric solution that, like a genetic code will give form and meaning to every part of the building."
Carol McMichael Reese
Favrot IV Professor of Architecture, Tulane University
“The surprising work of Harry Wolf, an architect pursuing his own patient search ... finding a language of geometry and silence in several works achieve an unusual, singular richness”
Vittorio Lampugnani
Casabella Magazine
“Indeed, the whole project pursues at the various scales the objective of re-establishing a relationship between man and nature, at the same time creating a new sense of space and time; all this is communicated in a subtle and hardly perceptible way. Not a clear sign, but a symbol, something revealing itself slowly and in the course of time.”
Mirko Zardini
Casabella Magazine
Publications
& Lectures
Click here to view a lecture given by Harry Wolf at ESAD School of Art and Design in Porto, Portugal
2016 HAROLD PINTER, ORTEGA & GASSET AND OTHER ROLLING STONES LECTURE APRIL
2013 NCNB / RIVERGATE TOWER LECTURE NOVEMBER
2002 UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE
2001 ARCHITECTURE FEBRUARY
1999 DAN KILEY: AMERICA’S MASTER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT MAY
1998 HISTORY OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CHAPTER OF THE A.I.A:
1913-1998
THE ARCHITECTURE OF DIPLOMACY
1996 DICTIONNAIRE DE L’ARCHITECTURE DU XXÈME SIÈCLE
KOREAN ARCHITECTS JUNE
1995 MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: LIGHT CONSTRUCTION
1995 CATALOGOS DE ARQUITECTURA CONTEMPORÁNEA
1993 PROCESS ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENT
WATERFRONTS: CITIES RECLAIM THEIR EDGE
EDICIONES GG: THE ARCHITECTURE OF HARRY WOLF
KOREAN ARCHITECTS JULY
L’INDUSTRIA ITALIANA DEL CEMENTO OCTOBER
1992 ARCHITECTURE CREE SEPTEMBER
MODERN ARCHITECTURE, A CRITICAL HISTORY KENNETH FRAMPTON
1991 100 CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTS
FLORIDA ARCHITECT
DENATURED VISIONS MUSEUM OF MODERN ART NEW YORK
DOMUS MARCH
1990 CONTROSPAZIO, ARCHITETTURA URBANISTICA MARCH
ARQUITECTURA DE NUEVA YORK
NEW YORK ARCHITECTS VOL 3
ARCHITETTURE PER IL TERZO MILLENNIO
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JANUARY
CIVIL ENGINEERING APRIL
CASABELLA MARCH
OCULUS
COMPTON YEARBOOK
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA
1989 NEW YORK ARCHITEKTUR JUNE
PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE FEBRUARY
ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY
1988 NEW YORK ARCHITECTS VOL 2
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE DECEMBER
1987 CASABELLA DECEMBER
JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
ARCHITETTURE DI PIETRA
1986 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD FEBRUARY
THE NEW YORK TIMES FEBRUARY
PROGRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE FEBRUARY
ELLE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER
1985 A+U ARCHITECTURE+URBANISM AUGUST
1983 NORTH CAROLINA ARCHITECT MAY
PERSPECTA 20
CASABELLA APRIL
1982 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JANUARY
1980 GUIDE TO US ARCHITECTURE 1940-1980
EXECUTIVE STYLE
1979 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD MARCH
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD MAY
1978 CONTRACT INTERIORS AUGUST
NORTH CAROLINA ARCHITECT MARCH
1976 NORTH CAROLINA ARCHITECT NOVEMBER
NORTH CAROLINA ARCHITECT MARCH
1975 NORTH CAROLINA ARCHITECT SEPTEMBER
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD MARCH
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD FEBRUARY
1974 THE NEW YORK TIMES JUNE
AIA JOURNAL MAY
1973 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JUNE
1972 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD JANUARY
1971 PROGRESIVE ARCHITECTURE NOVEMBER
AIA JOURNAL JUNE
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD MAY