Building designer helped shape city

Las Vegas lost a special citizen recently when Harris Sharp died June 10 at age 82.

He was the designer of hotels like the Plaza, the Mint and the Fremont and helped shape the town's direction from 1953to 1961 as city commissioner.

Harris was born in El Paso, Texas, the son of a doctor and youngest of the family. While attending the University of Southern California full time, he worked at Lockheed. He joined the Navy as an officer and years later, on camping trips to Southern Utah, shared tales of his military days with his own son, Spence Sharp.

"He told me the most dangerous, distasteful job he was given while in the Navy was being ordered to go down in the bilge of the ship to dismantle a still," Spence said, then chuckled. "He said, 'It was so distasteful because it was pretty good stuff.' "

In 1947, Harris moved to Las Vegas because of the opportunity for growth here. He and his first wife Margaret Jane had to live in Henderson until a house was built because there were no places to rent in Las Vegas. Eventually they moved to the Huntridge area.

Using his architectural degree, Harris was hired by a design company called Worswick and worked on commercial and residential buildings. He stayed with Worswick until 1950 when he and friend Walter Zick formed a partnership, Zick and Sharp. It was an alliance that would last until 1987, when both men retired.

About the time the partnership formed, the test site started setting off bombs. Harris drove young Spence and his little sisters to a spot "about 20 miles from ground zero" to witness one event, held just before daybreak. They weren't the only ones there, it was considered a family outing. The family saw the nighttime blasted away with sudden bright light and watched in awe as the mushroom cloud grew. Later tests rocked buildings and jiggled table lamps but people soon became blasé and no one paid much attention.

Through the years, Zick and Sharp designed some of the city's more notable buildings. Besides the downtown casinos, they designed the library at the university, the Foley Federal Building and the Ford Foundation auditorium in Boulder City as well as banks and other commercial buildings.

Harris made a niche for himself with his innovative, modernist junior and senior high schools and won national awards for those designs. He held the honor of being the architect of the nation's first air-conditioned junior high school -- Hyde Park, 900 Hinson St.

As Las Vegas grew, the Zick and Sharp partnership began remodeling existing hotels like the Golden Nugget, El Rancho, Thunderbird and Flamingo. It was at that last hotel-casino where Harris met the infamous Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

"He said Bugsy was 'the kind of guy that if you looked him in the eye and made a promise, you'd better keep it,' " Spence recalled.

Harris not only designed the Plaza, he was co-owner of it for years. Even though he strove for functional floor plans, he also toyed with novel ideas. One of those was putting a swimming pool in the Plaza's second floor, complete with a view of Fremont Street. The pool was later removed. The space is now home to the hotel's Center Stage Restaurant.

During Helldorado's early days, it was customary for the Jaycees and Elks to dress in western wear and carry real six guns loaded with blanks.

Harris, at 6-feet, 2-inches and about 225 pounds, carried two six shooters and was an imposing figure. He and a friend were at Binion's Horseshoe in their western outfits when his friend recognized a crook that had broken into his home.

"So they pulled their Colts out and held this miscreant until the police arrived," Spence recalled.

As city commissioner in the 1950s, Harris held a vision of Las Vegas' future expansion and tried to guide it by that vision. He argued, for example, that Highway 95 have multiple lanes in both directions.

Harris was involved with the Jaycees, the Exchange Club, Jesters, Ducks Unlimited, the National Rifle Association and a lifelong member of the American Institute of Architects.

John Yoxen, a contractor, was best man when Harris married his second wife Gail in 1982.

"His passing leaves a large hole in our lives," Yoxen said. "But his generous good works will encourage us to make similar contributions to those around us."

Harris's ashes will be scattered over the Southern Utah mountain where he loved to fish and hike. Besides Gail, he left behind four children, nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren -- and some pretty remarkable buildings that bear his mark.


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