Sarah Pillsbury Harkness (July 8, 1914 – May 22, 2013) was an American architect. She was a co-founder of The Architects Collaborative (TAC), an influential design firm that operated between the years of 1945 and 1995 based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At TAC, she was partner-in-charge on a wide range of building projects, particularly for educational institutions. She was author, co-author, and editor of numerous writings on the topic of design. She was one of the founders of the Six Moon Hill neighborhood in Lexington, Massachusetts where she lived for over 60 years.
thumb|A combined image of Sarah P. Harkness and Jean Bodman Fletcher within the [[Lexington Women's Liberty Monument in Lexington, Massachusetts]]
Early life and education
Born Sarah Pillsbury in Swampscott, Massachusetts, but called "Sally", she was the daughter of Samuel Hale Pillsbury, a lawyer, and the former Helen Farrington Watters. She graduated from the Winsor School and then from the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (affiliated with Smith College).
In 1974, She received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College.
Early career
Sally's first architectural project was a summer house for her parents in Duxbury, Massachusetts which she completed as a student at the Cambridge School. In this work she was supervised by Eleanor Raymond also a graduate of the school. The Pillsbury Summer House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, and is still in use as a private summer home.
Despite Harkess's success in this first project, she struggled to find architectual opportunities following graduation. She saw this as the inherent bias "against being a girl." She did gain useful professional experience and contacts in a short-lived business venture to distribute Artek furniture designed by the Finnish team of Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto. Instead she began work at a company that developed a novel type of packable furniture made from plywood called Pakto. She worked there between 1941-43. Her next position, (1943-44) was with the Museum of Modern Art where she worked on preparation of traveling exhibitions
As described by Kubo,
Among the TAC innovations was the way they accommodated the working schedules of the two founding partners who were mothers, Sally and Jean B. Fletcher. This approach was featured in a 1947 Boston Globe article entitled "No Woman Should Stay Home: Two Cambridge Wives Solve Career Problem."
One of TAC's earliest projects (1947) was the development of a new neighborhood in Lexington, Massachusetts which they named Six Moon Hill. Each of the partners developed a house for themselves with the exception of Gropius who already had a home (Gropius House) in nearby Lincoln, Massachusetts. The approach taken in the development of the neighborhood, was indicative of their insistence on fairness. The approximately 20-acre parcel was divided into 29 lots, which were then asigned by drawing names out of hat. The houses that were built stood out from the historic colonial architecture in Lexington and new Cape Cod style houses being built at the time. They incorporated skylights, flat or butterfly roofs, frameless windows, and large expanses of glass. Careful siting maximized winter sun and large eaves facing west protected against strong summer light. Sally lived in the house she designed with Chip for over 60 years until her death in 2013.
As a partner at TAC, Sally played the role of "partner-in-charge" on many of TAC's architectural commissions. Many of the projects were for educational institutions.
TAC projects as partner-in-charge
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Role
!Name
!Institution
!Location
|-
|1947-48
|TAC Partner-in-Charge (With Chip Harkness)
|Harkness House
|Six Moon Hill
|Lexington, Massachusettts
|-
|1960-66
|TAC Partner-in-Charge (With Chip Harkness)
|Fox Lane Middle School
|Bedford Public School District
|Bedford, New York
|-
|1962-67
|TAC Partner-in-Charge
|C. Thurston Chase Learning Center
|Eaglebrook School
|Deerfield, Massachusetts
|-
|1968-70
|TAC Partner-in-Charge (With Norman Fletcher)
|Addition
|Worcester Art Museum
|Worcester, Massachusetts
|-
|1967-71
|TAC Partner-in-Charge (With H. Morse Payne)
|Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
|Dickinson College
|Carlisle, Pennsylvania
|-
|1970-73
|TAC Partner-in-Charge (With Chip Harkness)
|Ladd Library
|Bates College
|Lewiston, Maine
|-
|1978-86
|TAC Partner-in-Charge
|Olin Arts Center
|Bates College
|Lewiston, Maine
|-
|1978-83
|TAC Partner-in-Charge (with Peter Morton)
|Headquarters
|Tennessee Valley Authority
|Chattanooga, Tennesee
|-
|1976-80
|TAC Partner-in-charge (with Dave Sheffield)
|Merrill Gymnasium
|Bates College
|Lewiston, Maine
|}
Her experience with furniture design was reflected in her design for an independent study unit or carrell for the Bedford, New York middle school. The goal of the carrel was to provide each student with a study space and privacy. This space consisted of a study space, dining area and coat storage. When introducing the study unit to the school, a choice was made that two-thirds of the students would have a carrel and one-third would not. This decision was made through the assumption that not all students would be ready for the independence that the carrel provides. The carrels were placed with the storage units, this allowed students to choose between working with their table-mate or independently. For students to be social for lunch, the tables were moved away from the storage units and combined together, making enough room for six students to eat at the combined table. The carrels also had screens that could be used to divide the students into groups. All the students' belongings were in their carrel, including coats which were hung on pegs at the end of the storage units.
Writings
Harkness was author, co-author, and editor of numerous writings about design. She co-edited with Walter Gropius the 1966 monograph about The Architects Collaborative and contributed to its writing. In 1976 she co-authored a book on specific design considerations for accommodating people with disabilities, Building without Barriers for the Disabled. She was an early proponent of environmental considerations in design. In The Solar Section: Starting Point of Passive Design, published in the AIA Journal in 1981, she wrote about the importance of understanding the impact of the direction of the sun's light. In 1985, she co-authored a book on sustainable design.
A full bibliography of writing by and about Harkness can be found as part of her profile by Michael's Kubo on the Pioneering Women in American Architecture website
- 1967 The design of the Fox Lane Middle School in Bedford, New York, The American Association of School Administrators Award
Additional information
Her papers are stored at the International Archive of Women in Architecture.
Harkness was elected as fellow to the American Institute of Architects in 1979.
Harkness was interviewed along with other then surviving founders of TAC in the 2006 documentary "Still Standing: Conversations With Three Founding Partners of The Architects Collaborative". -->