Roy Perkins Harrover,

FAIA Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) is a postnominal title or membership, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the institute on AIA-membe ...

(November 23, 1928 – December 13, 2016) was an American architect who designed the

Memphis International Airport Memphis International Airport is a civil-military airport located southeast of downtown Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is the primary international airport serving Memphis. It covers and has four runways., effective A ...

as well as numerous civic buildings across the southern United States. His designs range in style from New Formalist to

Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

and are characterized by their strictly linear forms. He is largely credited with having established a modern architectural identity for

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

Early life

Born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

on November 23, 1928, Harrover moved with his mother to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

at age two following his parents' divorce. At age 14, Harrover was hired by

Vultee Aircraft Vultee Aircraft, Inc., was an aircraft manufacturer founded in 1939 in Los Angeles County, California, when the ''Vultee Aircraft Division'' of the aviation holding company AVCO was reorganized as an independent company. It had limited success b ...

to construct accurate models of their airplanes. He served in the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

from 1946 to 1948, then attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

on the G.I. Bill, studying under

Vincent Scully Vincent Joseph Scully Jr. (August 21, 1920 – November 30, 2017) was an American art historian who was a Sterling Professor of the History of Art in Architecture at Yale University, and the author of several books on the subject. Architect Phil ...

King-lui Wu King-lui Wu (1918 – August 15, 2002) was a Chinese-American architect and professor at Yale University from 1945 to 1988. Life and work King-lui Wu was born in Guangzhou (Canton), China in 1918. Wu's father was a businessman, but despising ...

Louis Kahn Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; – March 17, 1974) was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. Whil ...

and visiting critics

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

and

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...

. In 1953, Harrover graduated first in his class.

Architecture

Following graduation, Harrover worked briefly as chief designer under Paul Schweikher. In 1955, he moved to Memphis and established the architectural firm Mann & Harrover with partner William Mann. They won a design competition in 1959, judged by

and Paul Rudolph, for the new Memphis Art Academy (now known as the

Memphis College of Art Memphis College of Art (MCA) was a private art college in Memphis, Tennessee. It was in Overton Park, adjacent to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. It offered Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in Art Education and M ...

). Mann died of lung cancer a year before Harrover finished designing the

. It was unveiled in 1963 and was among the first airports to make use of jetways and a two-level system. It is particularly noted for its distinctive

martini glass A cocktail glass is a stemmed glass with an inverted cone bowl, mainly used to serve straight-up cocktails. The term ''cocktail glass'' is often used interchangeably with ''martini glass'', despite their differing slightly. Today, the glass ...

-shaped columns. Once all projects involving Mann were completed, Harrover renamed the firm Roy P. Harrover & Associates. In the late 1970s, Mayor J. Wyeth Chandler commissioned Harrover to repurpose a defunct sandbar in the Mississippi River as a means of revitalizing downtown Memphis. Dredges were deployed to raise the sandbar above flood level, upon which Harrover designed the Mud Island River Park: an entertainment complex featuring a museum of the Mississippi River, an amphitheater, shops and restaurants, as well as the "Riverwalk": a water-filled, scale-model promenade depicting the lower Mississippi River between Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans. Harrover also designed the

Memphis Suspension Railway The Memphis Suspension Railway, Mud Island Monorail, or Memphis Monorail is a suspended monorail that connected the city center of Memphis with the entertainment park on Mud Island. Celebrating its grand opening on July 3, 1982, it is located ...

which allowed visitors to access the park from downtown, negotiating its constructing between Swiss engineers and Italian workers. Harrover was awarded honorary Doctorates in Fine Arts by

Rhodes College Rhodes College is a private liberal arts college in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), it is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South and is accredited by the Southern Associa ...

and the Memphis College of Art. He closed his firm in 1994 and began full-time consulting work.

Notable works

(1963) *

Mud Island Mud Island is a small peninsula in Memphis, Tennessee. It is bordered by the Mississippi River to the west and the Wolf River and Harbor Town to the east. Mud Island River Park is within the Memphis city limits, from the coast of downtown ...

(1982) *

(1959) *

One Commerce Square One Commerce Square is a 30-story skyscraper in Downtown Memphis which is locally referred to as the "iBank Tower". The building was formerly known as the NBC Building and the SunTrust Building, and is the fourth tallest building in Memphis, Ten ...

(1973) * Church of the River (First Unitarian Church of Memphis). (1965) *U.S. Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria *Weintraub Residence Addition (1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrover, Roy 1928 births 2016 deaths Architects from Ohio Architects from Tennessee Fellows of the American Institute of Architects Yale School of Architecture alumni