Lawrence concurrently served as campus architect for the University of Oregon and designed many campus buildings, including Knight Library and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Lawrence Hall on the university campus (which replaced his Architecture and Art Building of 1923) was named in his honor in 1956.[1] His body of over 500 projects includes churches, residences, commercial and industrial buildings, funerary buildings, multi-family residences, and public buildings.
In 1988, the private residence he designed for Thomas A. Livesley, a prominent Salem, Oregon businessman and civic leader, was purchased through private donations and donated to the state and now serves as the Governor's official residence (Mahonia Hall).[2]
In 1906, Codman & Despradelle (Boston), sent Lawrence to San Francisco to commence work there, but the 1906 San Francisco earthquake convinced him to stay in Portland, Oregon where he had stopped on the way. He lived in Portland the rest of his life and commuted to his work as dean and campus architect in Eugene.[4]
He was associated with several Oregon-based architecture firms: MacNaughton, Raymond & Lawrence (1906–1910); Lawrence & Holford (1913–1928); Lawrence, Holford, Allyn & Bean (1928–1933); and Lawrence, Holford, & Allyn (1933–1941). Lawrence's final partnership, Lawrence & Lawrence (1944–1946), was with his son, Henry Abbott Lawrence.
^Shellenbarger, Michael (1989). Harmony in Diversity: The Architecture and Teaching of Ellis H Lawrence. University of Oregon. p. 80. hdl:1794/12298. ISBN0871142538.
Harmony in Diversity : The Architecture and Teaching of Ellis F. Lawrence. Edited by Michael Shellenbarger ; essays by Kimberly K. Lakin, Leland M. Roth, Michael Shellenbarger. Eugene, Or.: Museum of Art and the Historic Preservation Program, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, 1989.
Ritz, Richard Ellison. "Lawrence, Ellis Fuller," Architects of Oregon; A Biographical Dictionary of Architects Deceased—19th and 20th Centuries. Portland, OR: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002.