Stanley Tigerman, the revered and irreverent unofficial chief of Chicago architects, died yesterday at 88. Stanley (never Stan!) emerged as a fledgling post-modernist with a group of architects dubbed the Chicago Seven in the 1970s, reacting against the pervasive Mies-inspired modernism of their hometown. Though Tigerman earned his B.Arch. and M.Arch. at Yale, he returned to Chicago immediately after getting his final degree. Yet he remained so loyal to his alma mater that, in his later years, when his chronic pulmonary condition prevented him from flying, he would take the train all the way to New Haven to attend final reviews.
His personality was embedded in his architecture—much of it playful and much of it reflecting his deep humanism. He designed an animal rescue center with a facade that included what looked like dog ears, and a house shaped like a hot dog. But he also created the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie (2009) and a new facility for the Pacific Garden Mission, a men’s homeless shelter in Chicago (2007)—both of which he described as exemplifying hope. In 1982, joining with his wife and partner, Margaret McCurry, he changed the firm to Tigerman McCurry Architects.
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