Theatre Architects

Born: 1866 (Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania)

Died: 1932 (Los Angeles, California)

Harrison Albright was an American architect best known for his innovative design of the West Baden Springs Hotel in Orange County, Indiana, which boasted the largest free-spanning dome in the world at the time of its construction.

Albright moved to Charleston, West Virginia in 1891 and was architect for the State of West Virginia in addition to designing residential projects. As State architect he designed an annex to the State Capitol, a state asylum at Huntington, West Virginia, the Miners’ Hospital in Fairmont, West Virginia and buildings at Shepherd University and the Preparatory Branch of West Virginia University at Keyser.

In 1901, Albright was hired by Indiana hotelier Lee Wiley Sinclair to design the landmark West Baden Springs Hotel which included the 200-foot-diameter (61 m) steel and glass dome which would be the largest free-spanning dome in the world until 1913 and the largest in America until the construction of the Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955.

In 1905, Albright moved his architectural practice to California, working in Los Angeles and San Diego, as early proponent of reinforced concrete construction. Albright’s 1905 Annex to the Homer Laughlin Building on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles was the city’s first reinforced concrete building.

John L. Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, was employed in the Albright firm.

Harrison Albright retired from architecture for health reasons in 1925 and died in 1932.

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, California, USA