Julian Hoke Harris

A sculptor, medallic artist, and educator, Julian Harris lived and worked most of his life in his native Georgia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Georgia Polytechnic University in 1928 and started working with an architectural firm in Atlanta. Soon after, he moved to Philadelphia, where he took another architectural job and enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to study sculpture. After graduating from the academy in 1934, he returned to Atlanta to open a studio, and two years later accepted a part-time faculty position at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, where he taught for thirty-six years. Harris’s sculptures grace more than fifty public buildings in the Southeast, including Georgia’s State Agricultural Building and State Office Building. He also designed and executed more than twenty medallions, including Georgia Tech’s Monie A. Ferst Medal (a national award that recognizes excellence in advancing research through education), the bicentennial medal for the state of Georgia, and President Jimmy Carter’s official inaugural medallion.