Shreve, Lamb and Harmon
Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon was the architectural firm best known for the 1931 Empire State Building, the tallest building in New York, and the world, at that time.
The firm was formed in 1929 by the Canadian Richmond Harold ("R.H.") Shreve, William F. Lamb from Brooklyn, and Arthur Loomis Harmon from Chicago. Shreve and Lamb had worked together for the firm Carrère and Hastings and formed their own practice in 1924. Shreve was the businessman and organizer; Lamb the designer. As Shreve and Lamb, then Shreve Lamb and Blake, after about 1920 they served as the successor firm to Carrère and Hastings and are credited with relatively minor New York City projects such as the Forbes Building and the completion of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway. However, the Empire State Building is by far the partnership's most significant design.
Harmon came into the partnership in 1929, after the Empire State Building was already underway. In their first meeting with the client John Jacob Raskob, Lamb asked Raskob about his vision for the building. Raskob stood a pencil on end and said, "How high can you make it so that it won't fall down?"
Notable buildings
All in New York City unless otherwise indicated:
- Reynolds Building, Winston-Salem, 1929
- 521 Fifth Avenue (also known as the Lefcourt National Building), 1929
- 740 Park Avenue (with Rosario Candela), 1930
- 500 Fifth Avenue, 1931
- Empire State Building, 1930–1931
- 14 Wall Street (formerly the Bankers Trust Company Building) addition, 1931–1932
- Joel W. Solomon Federal Building and United States Courthouse (with R. H. Hunt), Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1932
- 99 John Deco Lofts (formerly The Great American Insurance Company Building), 1933
- Acacia Building, Washington, D.C., 1936
- Hill Building (formerly the SunTrust Tower, CCB Building or Central Carolina Bank, and Durham Bank and Trust Building), Durham, North Carolina, 1935–1937
- Hunter College, 1940
- Parkchester buildings, 1939–1942
- Best & Company Building (demolished), 1947
- 1740 Broadway (formerly the MONY Building or Mutual of New York Building), 1950
- New York Supreme Court, Kings County, 1957
- Carman Hall, 1960
- United Engineering Center (demolished in 1997), 1961
- 280 Park Avenue (formerly the Bankers Trust Building, with Emery Roth & Sons), 1961
- 222 Broadway (formerly the Western Electric Building), 1961
- Calyon Building (formerly the Crédit Lyonnais Building and J. C. Penney Building), 1964
- Uniroyal Giant Tire, Allen Park, Michigan, 1964
- 245 Park Avenue (formerly the Bear Stearns Building, American Brands Building, and American Tobacco Company Building), 1967
- 1250 Broadway (formerly the Cooper-Bregstein Building), 1967–1968
- 475 Park Avenue South, 1969
- Gouverneur Hospital, 1970
- Textron Tower (formerly the 40 Westminster Building and Old Stone Tower), Providence, Rhode Island, 1972
- 55 Church Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 1974
- 130 Liberty Street (formerly the Deutsche Bank Building and One Bankers Trust Plaza, now demolished), 1974
- 3 Park Avenue, 1975