INTERVIEW WITH PAUL DURBIN McCURRY 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 © 1988 Revised Edition Copyright © 2005 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 Preface to the Revised Edition vi Outline of Topics vii Oral History 1 Selected References 150 Curriculum Vitae 151 Index of Names and Buildings 152 iii PREFACE On January 23, 24, and 25, 1987, I met with Paul McCurry in his home in Lake Forest, Illinois, where we recorded his memoirs. During Paul's long career in architecture he has witnessed events and changes of prime importance in the history of architecture in Chicago of the past fifty years, and he has known and worked with colleagues, now deceased, of major interest and significance. Paul retains memories dating back to the 1920s which give his recollections and judgments special authority. Moreover, he speaks as both an architect and an educator. Our recording sessions were taped on four 90-minute cassettes that have been transcribed, edited and reviewed for clarity and accuracy. This transcription has been minimally edited in order to maintain the flow, spirit and tone of Paul's original thought. Both the tape recording and transcript are available for research in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. Paul generously offered his first-hand recollections with candor and in detail. For this, future researchers and scholars will thank him. For his cooperation throughout this endeavor, I thank him. My appreciation is extended to Mrs. McCurry for her moral support for this endeavor. A selection of Paul's architectural drawings is in the collection of the Department of Architecture at the Art Institute and may be consulted by appointment. Selected published, as well as unpublished, references that I found helpful in preparation of this oral history are appended to this document. Paul McCurry's oral history was sponsored by Stanley Tigerman, Paul's son-in-law, who himself is a Chicago architect with a scholarly as well as a personal interest in documenting Chicago's recent architectural past. Stanley deserves our appreciation for his special support for this oral history and for his ongoing support for the entire oral history project o document Chicago's architects. For their contribution in processing this document, thanks go to Wilma McGrew, our transcriber, whose work has been conducted with intelligence iv throughout the transcript, and to Sarah Mollman, our editor, whose thoughtful and careful attention to detail brought this document to completion. Betty J. Blum November 1988 v PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION Since 1988, when the previous preface was written, advances in electronic transmission of data have moved at breakneck speed. With the ubiquity of the Internet, awareness and demand for copies of oral histories in the Chicago Architects Oral History Project collection have vastly increased. These factors, as well as the Ryerson and Burnham Library's commitment to scholarly research, have compelled us to make these documents readily accessible on the World Wide Web. A complete electronic version of each oral history is now available on the Chicago Architects Oral History Project's section of The Art Institute of Chicago website, http://www.artic.edu/aic, and, as before, a bound version is available for study at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago. In preparing an electronic version of this document, we have reformatted it for publication, reviewed and updated with minor copy-editing, and, where applicable, we have expanded the biographical profile and added pertinent bibliographic references. Lastly, the text has been reindexed and the CAOHP Master Index updated accordingly. All of the electronic conversion and reformatting is the handiwork of my valued colleague, Annemarie van Roessel, whose technical skills, intelligence, and discerning judgment have shaped the breadth and depth of the CAOHP's presence on the Internet. This endeavor would be greatly diminished without her seamless leadership in these matters. Publication of this oral history in web-accessible form was made possible by the generous support of The Vernon and Marcia Wagner Access Fund at The Art Institute of Chicago; The James & Catherine Haveman Foundation; The Reva and David Logan Family Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region; and Daniel Logan and The Reva and David Logan Foundation. Finally, to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago and its generous and supportive director, Jack P. Brown, we extend our deepest gratitude for facilitating this endeavor. Betty J. Blum February 2005 vi OUTLINE OF TOPICS Early Education That Led to an Interest in Architecture 1 Work with Arthur Jacobs, Architect of the City of Chicago 5 Study at Armour Institute of Technology 7 Work with Thomas Eddy Tallmadge 11 Second-and Third-Year Projects at Armour 12 Chicago Architectural Sketch Club 23 Work with Andrew Rebori 25 Louis Sullivan Remembered 26 Description of Chicago in the 1920s 32 Sullivan’s Funeral 35 Traveling in Europe 37 Rebori’s Office 60 Work in the Office of D.H. Burnham on the Century of Progress International Exposition, 1933-1934 63 Working in the Office of the Architect of the State of Illinois 67 Saugatuck Artists Community 69 The Century of Progress International Exposition and Its Aftermath 72 Teaching in Chicago Public Schools 77 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Comes to the Illinois Institute of Technology—Impressions of the Welcoming Ceremony and Feelings About Mies as a Teacher 83 Entering the Office of Schmidt, Garden and Erikson, 1946 89 Veterans Administration Hospital, Chicago, and Other Health Care Facilities 93 Educational Facilities 101 Partner at Schmidt, Garden and Erikson 109 The American Institute of Architects and Some Issues 112 Serving on the Illinois State Board of Examiners 120 The Architectural Establishment 126 Impact of Career on Family 128 Designing the McCurry Family Home in Lake Forest, Illinois 134 Membership in the Cliff Dwellers Club 137 Research Material 145 vii Paul Durbin McCurry Blum: Today is January 23, 1987, and I am with Paul McCurry at his house in Lake Forest. Paul, how is it that you became an architect? Please begin at the beginning as you remember it. McCurry: I became an architect, or I started to study architecture, because my mother suggested that this would be a good career. She had two boys and being a mother that felt that all members of the family should work diligently. She had examined my brother and myself and decided that I had the capabilities to be an architect. I don't know how she came to this conclusion, but she did. She had decided that my brother should be a lawyer, and he has been a successful lawyer, and I have enjoyed my career in architecture enormously. In pursuing her goal, she encouraged me to be interested in craftwork, and to read extensively. I had that opportunity, I presume, to some degree, because I was born in an exciting period of time—December 3, 1903, which had its feet pretty firmly in the late Victorian period, but was beginning to look at new horizons. New political and economic situations were beginning to arrive. I attended the Lewis Champlin Elementary School, which was on 62nd and Princeton Avenue, in a rather middle-class neighborhood—mostly old frame Victorian houses that all had yards, the streets were still paved with dirt, the curbstones were really big stones and not concrete curbs. I started out in first grade with a first grade teacher by the name of Mary Weibert, who happened to be a neighbor of ours. She taught us to read and the elements of arithmetic very rapidly. I enjoyed going to school, which was about eight blocks away, so I had a good morning's walk. My second grade teacher still stands out in my memory as being an outstanding person. Her name was Miss McChesney. She was a slender woman and each day she wore a different apron, which always intrigued me because it was of an impelling and interesting design. She believed in keeping all kinds of artifacts around her room, and she had a great big, old square room in an old red brick 1 schoolhouse that happened to face to the south. She had a room filled with specimens of stone and coal and leaves and twigs and other pieces of wood. Very soon, she began to relate the things she had in her room to our everyday lives. We all waited for Friday afternoon because if we had been good children, in her judgment, she showed us stereopticon slides, which involved bringing up the janitor to put a contraption into the window, which faced to the south and reflected the sunlight into the camera, and she showed us pictures of her journey around this country and through the world. This was my first real lesson in geography. She was a remarkable gal and I have never forgotten her. My other teachers were also helpful and I found them interesting. In third grade I had a Miss Pickney. In fourth grade, a Mrs. Caswell. In the fifth grade, which was 1914—the beginning of the war—we had a teacher who was teaching us German, who was of German extraction, and who was very much upset by this conflict between France and England and Germany.