Basic Biographical Details
| Name: | Mayers, Murray & Phillip |
| Designation: | |
| Born: | Late 1920s or 1931 |
| Died: | 31 March 1940 |
| Bio Notes: | Mayers, Murray & Phillip was the successor practice to the New York firm of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. After Goodhue's death on 23 April 1924the practice was continued by three senior assistants - Francis L S Mayers, Oscar H Murray and F Hardie Phillip - as Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue Associates. They changed the firm title to Mayers, Murray & Phillip sometime before 1931. Phillip was the lead designer in the practice. He had been born in Scone on 18 March 1888 and had been educated at James Gillespie's School and George Heriot's School, Edinburgh. He had been arguably the most successful of Robert Stodart Lorimer's assistants, working in his office about 1905-1910 and had been part of the James Smith Richardson-John Ross McKay-James Taylor Thomson circle there. Whilst there he had studied at Edinburgh School of Art and Heriot-Watt College. In 1910 he had applied for an assistant's post with Jonathan Simpson in Bolton, Lancashire, but in the event he had emigrated first to the Federal Malay States for two years, and then to New York. There he had worked briefly in the firm of Cross & Cross before following his former colleague James Taylor Thomson to the office of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, to which he and Thomson had brought experience of the detail, design and execution of Lorimer's Gothic woodwork. Thomson had returned to Scotland for medical reasons in 1920. Mayers, Murray and Phillip completed the Nebraska State Capitol, the National Academy of Science in Washington, Los Angeles Public Library, the Physics Building at Dabney Hall, Pasadena, the Fraternity House of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers, New York and Dillingham Hall, Panahou, Honolulu (1924-1930), and the Honolulu Academy of Arts (1924-27) which Phillip largely redesigned. Of the buildings which Phillip designed completely anew the most important were the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York (1926-29); Nu'nnano, Hawaii for Clarence Hyde Cook at the Bank of Hawaii; the C Brewer Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago (1931). In 1933 the firm was appointed Architects to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and thereafter was responsible for public buildings on most of the reservations throughout the USA, and in particular on those in New Mexico and Arizona, where they were responsible for the design of the New Navajo Capital in 1934. Phillip was admitted as a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1925, and was elevated to Fellow in 1936 in recognition of his 'distinction in design of religious and educational buildings, in which the traditional forms of our art are applied in a truly original way. Producing modern buildings both beautiful in themselves and adapted to their use'. The partnership of Mayers, Murray & Phillip was dissolved on 31 March 1940. Mayers retained the existing office at 2 West 47th Street; Murray moved to Rhinebeck, New York; and Phillip took an office at 28 West 44th Street, where he worked in association with Wayne Soverns and Robert Posey, although the practice title was in Phillip's name alone. |
Private and Business Addresses
| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | |||||
| Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | |
 | 2, West 47th Street, New York, New York, United States of America | Business | 1924 | ||
Employment and Training
Employees or Pupils
| The following individuals were employed or trained by this (click on an item to view details): | |||||
| Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | |
| Malcolm Livingston McIsaac | Assistant | Spent one year with this practice in New York | ||
| Francis Lorne | After 1924 | 1930 | Architect | |
| Ludovic Gordon Farquhar | After 1926 | Before 1931 | Assistant(?) | |
| Harold John Muir | After 1929 | Before 1935 | Assistant | |
| F Hardie Phillip | Late 1920s or 1931 | 31 March 1940 | Partner | |
References
Bibliographic References
| The following books contain references to this : | ||||||
| Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | |
| Oliver, Richard | 1983 | Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue | New York, Cambridge & London: Architectural History Foundation/MIT Press | p235 | |
| www.philadelphiabuildings.org | 2005 | www.philadelphiabuildings.org | Philadelphia Architects and Buildings website | ||