Partner Abdelwahid Elhassan
Queer Places:
5610 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
306 N 56th St, Seattle, WA 98103
9800 Bayard Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117
Academie Julian, Passage des Panoramas, 75002 Paris
1105 Spring St, Seattle, WA 98104
1512 Beaver Marsh Road, Mount
Vernon, WA
Roland Terry (June 2, 1917 - June 8, 2006) was a Pacific Northwest architect from the 1950s to the 1990s. He was a prime contributor to the regional approach to Modern architecture created in the Northwest in the post-World War II era. One of
Lionel Pries' students,
Robert Shields, became not only a successful architect but also a talented
watercolorist, designer, and ceramic artist. In 1946, after serving in the US
Navy during WWII, he joined forces with another gay architect, Roland Terry,
as well as Bert Tucker. Together, the three men helped to establish a
Northwest aesthetic in regional architecture, partially influenced by Pries'
knowledge and collecting of Asian art and antiques.
Terry was born in Seattle, the son of Clyde Casper Terry (1884-1919) and Florence E. Beach (1880-1958). Clyde's father was a preacher in Port Townsend, WA, in 1880, while Florence's worked as a farmer in Ottawa, KS, in 1900.
He lived for
most of his life in the Puget Sound. At one year of age, Roland lived with his
parents at 5610 Greenwood Avenue in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood near
Woodland Park. This residential area was new at the time, with many small
bungalows lining this section of Greenwood Avenue. Right after their marriage, Clyde worked as a teacher at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). According to Clyde Terry's World War I registration documentation, he was self-employed as a contracting engineer in Seattle, WA. Clyde died
very young, at age 35 in 1919, creating unsettled financial conditions for his
wife and son. He and his mother, Florence, moved periodically. At the age of
three, just after his father's death, he lived with his widowed mother and
grandmother in a residence at 115 West Josephine Street in Compton, CA.
Between 1920 and 1932, mother and son shuttled between two addresses in Seattle, possibly two properties that the family owned. Florence and Roland resided at 306 North 56th Street in Seattle but, by 1925, they returned to dwell at 5610 Greenwood Avenue in Seattle, where they also stayed in 1927 and 1928. In 1930-1931, their address was back at 306 North 56th Street, and the following year, at 5610 Greenwood Avenue.
The 1930 US Census indicated that Roland, his mother, and his widowed paternal grandmother, Emma C. Terry lived at 5612 Greenwood Avenue. The census reported that they lived at 306 No. 56, but this address was adjacent to 5612 Greenwood.
In 1933, Terry and his mother moved to Kansas City, MO, presumably to be nearer to her family which had its roots in KS. He attended Southwest High School in that year. He returned to Seattle to graduate from Lincoln High School in 1935.
The US Census of 1940 indicated that Roland Terry lived with his mother on 15th Avenue NW in the Crown Hill neighborhood of Seattle. By 1943, his mother lived at 9800 Bayard Avenue in Seattle.
When Terry left for his European travels in 1949, he indicated that his home
address remained at 9800 Bayard.
Terry entered the architecture program at the University of Washington program in architecture in 1935; although he effectively completed the five-year program to earn his B.Arch. by 1940, the degree was not awarded for some years because he was short a few credits. During his years at Washington he benefited from the mentorship of faculty member Lionel Pries.
In 1941, Terry won an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Langley Scholarship which allowed him to tour South America and see many examples of the region's early Modern buildings. From 1942 to 1946, Terry served in the military.
On Terry's return to Seattle, he joined University of Washington classmates Bert A. Tucker and Robert M. Shields to form Tucker, Shields & Terry. The firm designed custom houses, restaurants and other small buildings, usually in wood and other natural materials, and began to emerge as leaders in Northwest regional Modern architecture. Terry left the partnership in 1949 to study painting in Paris. He studied painting at the Academie Julian, Paris France, during the winter, 1949-1950. The firm continued as Tucker & Shields.
In 1950, Tucker, Shields & Terry and Wimberly & Cook were hired to design the Seattle restaurant Canlis. Updates and alterations were later designed by Tucker & Shields, and then by Terry & Moore. The building is considered a Seattle landmark.
In 1952, Terry joined Philip A. Moore to form Terry & Moore, a new firm based in Seattle. Terry & Moore executed a large number of houses, often including significant landscape design and interior design, usually in collaboration with emerging designers in those professions.
In 1955, Terry resided at 1105 Spring Street in Seattle, WA.
Following on in 1960, Terry opened his own practice as Roland Terry & Associates and continued to design notable houses and other structures, as well as restaurants and other interiors in Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu. Terry took his longtime associate, Robert H. Egan into partnership in 1974 forming Terry & Egan, a partnership that endured until 1987.
Terry was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects in 1980; he received the AIA Seattle Chapter Medal in 1991, the highest award given by the chapter.
Between 1980-2006, Abdelwahid Elhassan, was Terry's companion.
In his later years, Terry lived quietly at his property near Mount Vernon, Washington. In 1993, Roland Terry's office
and home was located at 1512 Beaver Marsh Road, Mount Vernon, WA. He died on June 8, 2006.
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