ORAL HISTORY OF STANLEY TIGERMAN Interviewed by Betty J. Blum Compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project The Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings Department of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago Copyright © 2003 The Art Institute of Chicago This manuscript is hereby made available to the public for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publication, are reserved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago. No part of this manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of The Art Institute of Chicago. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface iv Outline of Topics vi Oral History 1 Appendix: Selected References 253 Appendix: Curriculum Vitæ 258 Index of Names and Buildings 260 iii PREFACE Ask anyone to name a living Chicago architect and, chances are, they will name Stanley Tigerman. How and why did Tigerman become one of Chicago’s best known and most often-quoted architects? Born during the depression with little familial encouragement and few resources to study architecture, Tigerman managed by his driving ambition and sheer wit to go to Yale, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in record time. Determination to achieve is a cornerstone of Tigerman’s personality and it is reflected in his kaleidoscopic range of projects and his multi-faceted career. He is a popular practitioner, an effective though controversial educator, co-founder of an alternative school of design education, writer on many topics, master cartoonist, and creative exhibition designer. Among Tigerman’s diverse undertakings has been his leadership in the thought-provoking activities of the Chicago Seven, a group of young architects who, in the 1970s and early 1980s, fought against the prevailing norm and changed the direction of architecture in Chicago. Noted architectural historian Carl Condit has said about Tigerman, “I think his value for architecture in Chicago has been precisely that he’s been a major figure in freeing it from the ruling Mies-Skidmore mode, which has been done to death.” It is the intention of this oral history to take a closer look at Tigerman’s contribution to the oftentimes controversial activities of the Chicago Seven and his participation in Chicago’s architectural community in order to discover how and why he came to be the important force in architecture that he is today. To tape record Tigerman’s story in his own words, we met in his office on August 10, 11, 13, and 14, 1998, where, in almost ten hours on 7 ninety-minute cassettes, we recorded his recollections. He spoke about his family background, how he came to study architecture at Yale with Paul Rudolph, his early jobs with George Fred Keck, Skidmore Owings and Merrill and others, architects who have influenced his work, his teaching jobs, and his opinions and ideas. The transcript has been minimally edited to maintain the spirit and flow of the original spoken narrative. Tigerman’s review of the transcript brought forth a few corrections and deletions as well as some additional comments. Selected references that I found helpful in preparing this interview are appended in two sections: those of general interest about the Chicago Seven, and those written by Tigerman and others about his work. iv Tigerman’s transcribed oral history is available for study in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago, as well as on the CAOHP webpage on The Art Institute of Chicago’s website: www.artic.edu Thanks go to several people who contributed to bringing this oral history to completion. First, to Stanley Tigerman, for his willingness to commit time to record his oral history while also engaged with the demands of his busy office and school. In that Tigerman has donated some of his papers to the Art Institute, I hope this oral history will extend one’s knowledge and understanding of his work. Special thanks go to the Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts, without whose funding support this group study on the Chicago Seven may not have been documented. To Katherine Reid I am grateful for her transcribing help, and to Annemarie van Roessel, I am deeply appreciative for all she did to shape this document with her usual good judgment, care and skill in transcribing and in formatting this text for print and electronic publication. Betty J. Blum April 2003 v OUTLINE OF TOPICS Family Background and Early Influences 1 How Tigerman was Admitted to Yale University 8 Study at Yale with Paul Rudolph 12 Working in the Office of Keck & Keck 17 Tigerman’s Work Ethic 21 Tigerman’s First Office: Tigerman, Rudolph & Young 24 Robert Bruce Tague and the Institute of Design 27 Military Service in the United States Navy 31 More About Yale 34 Working for A.J. Del Bianco and in the Office of Milton Schwartz 38 Work and Colleagues at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 41 Working in the Office of Harry Weese 56 An Evening With Mies 59 About Serge Chermayeff 61 Co-founding the Office of Tigerman & Koglin 63 American Institute of Architects Planning and Urban Affairs Committee and the City 66 Woodlawn Gardens Project and Thoughts About Housing 71 About John Entenza 77 Anti-Semitism and Architecture 79 More About John Entenza 84 More About Woodlawn Gardens and Projects with a Social Concern 85 About Muzharul Islam and Work in Pakistan 89 Resignation and Reinstatement in Pakistan 94 Fazlur Khan 102 Projects and Possible Influences 104 Inland Steel Building and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 107 Harlow By the Lake and a Design by Paul Schweikher 110 Phases in Tigerman’s Design Work 113 Faith and Interpretation in Architecture 114 Relationship Between Writing and Building 118 Designs for Zonolite Advertisements 123 vi Publishing and Writing 128 Responding to Change 134 Birth and Activities of the Chicago Seven 136 Continuing Activities of the Chicago Seven 146 Seven Becomes Eleven 161 The Chicago Architectural Club 162 Reflections 165 Teaching at UIC: Thoughts About Architectural Education and Educators 169 Publications 190 Difficulties and Departure at UIC 199 Archeworks 205 "Late Entries" Exhibition 220 The Venice Biennale 226 More About Mies and the Miesians 229 Reflections 231 More Exhibitions 232 Symposia: The Charlottesville and Chicago Tapes 235 More About Projects with a Social Cause 239 The American Institute of Architects 242 Marketing 244 Impact of the Chicago Seven 247 vii Stanley Tigerman Blum: Today is August 10th, 1998, and I am with Stanley Tigerman in his office in Chicago. Stanley was born in 1930 in Chicago. Some years after a brief stint at MIT, Stanley received his architectural credentials at Yale—his bachelor’s in 1960 and master’s in 1961. Stanley worked for large, midsize, and small firms before organizing his own firm with Norman Koglin in 1962. The partnership ended in 1964 when Stanley founded Stanley Tigerman and Associates. Tigerman: No, Stanley Tigerman, Architect, originally. Blum: And today known as Tigerman McCurry. Tigerman: Right. Blum: Stanley has pursued a multi-faceted career as a practitioner, as an educator, as the ringleader of the Chicago Seven, the gadfly of the profession, publicist without equal, a writer, cartoonist, artist, and sculptor. The list is long. As a practitioner, Stanley Tigerman’s stylistic vocabulary is “schizophrenic” by his own admission. It seems always to be personal, an idiosyncratic expression and at times very witty. Stanley, you’ve done it all. As an educator, you have been widely recognized for your excellent and challenging methods in the classroom but as an administrator/director your methods have been controversial. Tigerman: Fair. If you’re not controversial, perhaps you’re not doing much. Blum: Today, you are the co-founder and the director of Archeworks, a new concept in alternate architectural design education. In the mid-seventies, you and a 1 few of your colleagues attracted a small group of architects who, like you, wanted to overturn the hold that Mies and his followers had on the mainstream of architecture and to move architecture in new, fresh directions. Tigerman: But Mies was dead. It wasn’t Mies, it was his followers. Blum: Well, wasn’t it the stranglehold that the Miesian vocabulary had on mainstream thinking that you wanted to challenge? Tigerman: When Mies was alive there was no stranglehold. But the followers… Blum: Your effort came in the midst of one of the most tumultuous times in American history. It was a time of disenchantment, the status quo was under attack. How and why the Chicago Seven came into being, what they did, and what they didn’t do, is what I hope you will explore. Before we do, may we go back to a more formative period in your life and learn what led you to architecture? You said, in an interview with Barbaralee Diamondstein, that as a thirteen year-old you read The Fountainhead and that book really inspired you to become an architect. Is that what you would say today? Tigerman: Yeah. Blum: Did you have any closer influences? From your mother, your father, your grandfather? Tigerman: No. Blum: Friends of your family or teachers? Tigerman: No, no. There was a portrait painter on my mother’s side of the family. But, I knew him only slightly. He actually did a portrait of me when I was twelve— I don’t remember, twelve, eleven, ten, something like that, maybe ten. But 2 there was no one who had any clue about architecture. I didn’t have any access to those sorts of influences at all. Blum: You were born and raised in Chicago? Tigerman: Right.