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Colleagues gather in Chicago to remember Stanley Tigerman

In Tribute

Colleagues gather in Chicago to remember Stanley Tigerman

Stanley Tigerman in 2007. (ChicagoEye/Flickr)

The family, contemporaries, and friends of Stanley Tigerman gathered in Rubloff Auditorium at the Art Institute of Chicago on October 18 for memorial service where they offered remembrances of the late architect. Amid a full house of more than 500, quotes, anecdotes, and fond memories of Tigerman were recited. Below is just a small sampling:

Robert A.M. Stern:

“To a full house.

“There is no one who better represented what is ethical and responsible and what is best in architecture in our time than Stanley.”

“A fabulous and pathological truthteller.”

“He was never satisfied with straightforward interpretation. From the start, his work typically contained a subtext that was dying to become the principle discourse, a hidden whimsy, even irrationality.”

Peter Eisenman:

“I would impersonate Stanley to get a seat at Gene and Giorgetti’s. I did this so many times that the last time I walked in the maître d greeted me with “‘Hello Mr. Tigerman.’”

“After reading Stanley’s architectural memoir, Building Bridges to Burn, all of us who think we knew him should read this book. Whatever one thought of him, his work is revealed in another life.”

“The architect who never had enough bridges to burn.”

Robert Somol:

“If Bob (stern) and Peter (Eisenman) and Stanley, represent what Stanley once called dysfunctional siblings, then those of my generation are Stanley’s dysfunctional children. And as such we tried to be loyal if we weren’t generally obedient. Which might not be ideal, it’s a lot better than those that are obedient but disloyal.”

“When you talked to Stanley, whether you realized it or not, you were making a contract or a promise. And god help you if you didn’t keep your end of the bargain. Stanley was not one for idle banter. For Stanley his work was his bond, and that is how you have to live when you are an outsider.”

John Ronan:

“From him, I learned how to be an architect, and how you had to make your projects. I learned how to thrive on conflict. I learned the perils of fame, and the proper usage of the word fuck.”

“When Stanley started his practice, architecture was still something of a gentleman’s profession, and Stanley proved in many ways, you didn’t have to be a gentleman to succeed in it.”

“All of us here were shaped by Stanley in some way. We are how we are, do some less or more degree because of him. We are all now part of his family, and he is part of us… whatever the fuck that means.”

Frank Gehry:

“I’m just tempted to say ‘ditto,’ but I did write something so please forgive me.”

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