Blog

By Emily Clott, Class of 2012

CAC volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and neighborhoods, united by an interest in being of service and learning more about Chicago, its architecture, and the people drawn to take its tours and visit its exhibits. Meet Howard Wheat, one of our longest-serving volunteers.

Howard is a life-long Chicago south-sider who graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in Bronzeville, and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He worked as an associate regional administrator for the US Department of Labor in the Mies van der Rohe-designed Kluczynski Federal building for 30 years, until his retirement in 2004. Howard says that the federal government didn’t much respect Mies’ design intentions, randomly dividing the open floor plates into small office spaces.

He remembers when CAF was headquartered in the Monadnock Building, just across the street from his office. When he saw people leading crowds around the area, looking up and pointing out features of nearby buildings, he wondered what they were up to. When he learned that those people were docents taking folks on architecture tours, his interest was piqued. But when he retired, the docent training program looked like more work than he wanted to do, so he looked for another way to serve. Acting as an interpreter of the Chicago model sounded just right, so he filled that role for years. When the new CAC opened, he trained as an exhibit host and now volunteers every other Wednesday from 9:30-12:30. He enjoys the way that he and the other two volunteers on each shift rotate so that they spend one third of their time in the Skyscraper Gallery, 1/3 in the Chicago Gallery, and 1/3 in the Chicago City Model Experience. He observed that the guests he meets now are much more specifically interested in architecture that those who came upon the Chicago Model at 224 S. Michigan, many of whom just happened to be passing through.

One particular incident that Howard recalls with a chuckle was when Caroline Duda’s mom and aunt visited her at the old CAF headquarters. She took them out to the model to meet Howard, who she told them speaks five languages. He’s not sure why she thought that about him, and hopes they weren’t too disappointed. His favorite part of volunteering at CAC is the diverse group of people he has come in contact with.

Howard and his wife Audrey have a grown son and daughter and two grandchildren with a third on the way. Since retirement, they have taken about 30 trips all over the world with Road Scholars. He loves the fact that the tours include guided tours and lectures making it possible to go deeper into a country’s culture and history than a casual trip could. Their travels have included Ghana, Morocco, Spain, Portugal, England, France, Turkey, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, and New Zealand. He found the souks in Morocco to be a highlight among many in these tours, where architecture is just one of many threads the participants learn about. Howard and his wife were scheduled to embark on another Road Scholar adventure to Japan this April, but alas, the global pandemic has canceled that for now.

Howard and Audrey live in a high rise in Hyde Park where their views of Lake Michigan and the surrounding parks and beaches ease the burden of being cooped up for the pandemic. We look forward to having him show us around when the Center reopens one day soon.