Born in 1914, Sarah Pillsbury Harkness, an architect of Lexington, Massachusetts, received her Master of Architecture degree from the Smith College Graduate School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in 1940. She was a founder, in 1945, and now Principal Emeritus of the Architects Collaborative (TAC). She was President of the Boston Society of Architects, a chapter of the AIA, in 1985. She was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer and Guest Lecturer at the University of Arizona, Tucson, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a thesis advisor, lecturer, critic, and honorary member of the Boston Architectural Center.

Harkness's most noteworthy designs include the New Main Library and the Olin Arts Center at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine; the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; the Art School Addition at the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts; and the C. Thurston Chase Learning Center of the Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Harkness has received many awards in her career, including the Boston Society of Architects Prize (1941), the American Association of School Administrators Award for her design of the Fox Middle School in Bedford, New York (1967), the American Institute of Architects Honor Award for her design of the Chase Learning Center of the Eaglebrook School (1967), the American School and University Louis I. Kahn Citation for her design of the Olin Arts Center at Bates College (1987), and the Boston Society of Architects 1991 Award of Honor.

Harkness was elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1979. She is a registered architect of Massachusetts and Tennessee. Harkness died May 22, 2013.