David Adler

David Adler (January 3, 1882 – September 27, 1949) was an American architect who mostly practiced around Chicago, Illinois. He was prolific throughout his career, designing over 200 buildings in over thirty-five years. He was also a long-time board member of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Biography

Early life Adler was born on January 3, 1882, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a German Jewish family, the son of Isaac David Adler, a prosperous wholesale manufacturer of men's clothing, and Therese Hyman Adler. One of David Adler's sisters, Frances, became a prominent interior designer. He studied for three semesters at the Technical University of Munich in Germany. From 1906 to 1911, Adler studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. An avid cyclist, Adler would travel to the countryside of France, Italy, and England to visit country houses and collect picture postcards.

Career After returning to the United States in 1911, he began working as an architect for Howard Van Doren Shaw in Chicago, Illinois. Shaw was considered the foremost architect of country houses in the Chicago area. After six months of study, he opened a new office with a friend from Paris, Henry Dangler, in Orchestra Hall. Together, the pair secured commissions for country estates for William E. Clow Jr., Ralph Poole, Benjamin Nields, Morris E. Berney, David B. Jones, and Charles B. Pike.

A number of Adler's works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:

Personal life

Adler married Katherine Keith, an Illinois socialite and writer, in 1916. In 1925, he was named a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, a position that he held for the rest of his life. He became a widower in 1930 after his wife was killed in a car accident in Europe. Adler was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1941 and a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1945. Adler died of a heart attack in his sleep, aged 67, in Libertyville. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Mrs. Isaac D. Adler House (1931 remodel), 1480 N. Milwaukee Ave. Libertyville, IL, NRHP-listed Waverly (1940 remodel), S of Middleburg on VA 626 Middleburg, VA, NRHP-listed William McCormick Blair Estate, 982 Sheridan Rd. Lake Bluff, IL, NRHP-listed Mrs. C. Morse Ely House, 111 Moffett Rd. Lake Bluff, IL, NRHP-listed Field Estate, Field Rd. and Camino Real Sarasota, FL, NRHP-listed One or more works in Green Bay Road Historic District, Roughly, area surrounding 10 S to 1596 N Green Bay Rd. and Ahwahnee Rd. Lake Forest, IL, NRHP-listed Mrs. Kersey Coates Reed House, 1315 N. Lake Rd. Lake Forest, IL, NRHP-listed William E. Clow, Jr. House, in Vine–Oakwood–Green Bay Road Historic District, Lake Forest, IL, NRHP-listed The Nields House, 145 Milton Road, Rye, New York