Jean Goldberg: Harris’ plans completed St. Giles

After reading the April 5 Point of View article “Harris’ buildings a study of creativity,” I revisited many pleasant memories of Harwell Hamilton Harris.

As a member of the building committee of Raleigh’s St. Giles Presbyterian Church in 1967, I had the great privilege and experience of meeting and working with Harris, who was not only an innovative master architect and gentleman, but also a gentle man. Harris had the ability to listen to his clients without imposing his architectural biases. That ability resulted in the important shared vision that became St. Giles Church.

He spoke in a very soft voice, rather like a poet or an artist, elaborating on his work, keeping each of us on the edge of our seats anticipating every word as he described his vision of the master plan for our church.

In addition to the lengthy committee meetings with him, over a 20-year period, I had conversations and afternoon tea in his unique and lovely home on Cox Avenue. I listened to him elaborate on his vision of the physical needs of our church, “St. Giles not being a single structure standing alone, but a group of structures acting with one another and with the space they share. It is a family of buildings for a family of persons.”

The first building was completed in 1969, another followed in 1974, the beautiful sanctuary in 1983, another addition in 1988 and the covered walkway connecting the buildings 32 years later in 2001. Harris was present for the building of each addition except for the covered walkway.

Two remaining structures may or may not be built, but because of Harris’ creativity and careful planning, St. Giles has an “air of completeness.” He best described our combined vision, “A Wilderness Place”: “The pine trees, with their discarded needles for a carpet and the sky for a ceiling, provide a non-human presence in which other non-human presences may make themselves felt. Throughout human history nature always seems to be the setting for great revelations – a mountain top, a deep valley, a wilderness.”

As Frank Harmon said, we need more of this kind of creative innovation from our architects and builders blending past and future as Raleigh continues to grow.

The length limit was waived to permit a fuller response to the POV.

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Jean Goldberg: Harris’ plans completed St. Giles."