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This week, we wanted to know: If you could have dinner with any architect, living or dead, who would you choose? We received some very thoughtful responses and great guest lists! Here’s who your fellow CAC volunteers would invite to dinner:

Judith Kaufman, Class of 2010 – Frank Gehry

“That’s easy. I’d pick Frank Gehry. I hear he’s full of fun and good cheer.”

Joanne Linzer, Class of 2000 – Frank Lloyd Wright and Piet Oudolf

“My dinner guests would be two architects: FLW and Piet Oudolf. Both created designs inspired by nature. My love of gardening and prairie architecture would have many questions for my guests. There wouldn’t be time to eat. Piet Oudolf’s shy and witty nature against FLW’s never afraid to say what’s on his mind would indeed be a conversation to remember.”

Jan Fraccaro, Education Guide and Exhibit Host – Daniel Burnham

“My choice would be Daniel Burnham.  I’d love to hear what large (not little?) plans he would make for a reopened Chicago, taking into consideration all the elements of design for office and residential spaces as well as public lands.”

Steve Gersten, Class of 2003 – Art Vandalay 

Larry Mages, Class of 2011 – William van Alen and Ustad Ahmad

“William Van Alen – Chrysler Building, an Art Deco masterpiece with that delicious roof; Gatsby would have his office there; and

Ustad Ahmad – Taj Mahal, perfect balance on a human scale made of marble that changes color from dawn to dusk.”

Kevin Griebenow, Class of 1993 and Education Guide – Fazlur Khan

“I would have dinner not with an architect, but with a structural engineer, THE structural engineer Fazlur Khan.  He was the structural engineer at SOM working on the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartments, Hancock Tower, and Sears Tower designs.  He looked at the different structural systems that allowed skyscrapers to be built economically and introduce a new era of skyscraper construction.”

Monica Kline, Class of 2004 – Fazlur Khan, Eero Saarinen, and Mary Colter

“My party would have to include Fazlur Khan, Eero Saarinen and Mary Colter. All innovators in very different ways – what a fascinating conversation it would be!”

Bill Lipsman, Class of 2009 – Eero Saarinen

“I would love to have had dinner with Eero Saarinen. His design of the Deere & Co. headquarters is what prompted my interest in architecture as an 11 year old living in the Quad-Cities. The beauty of the building derives from its mid-20th Century lines, with a bit of Asian influence, its Cor-Ten steel cladding and its site in a valley between two rolling hills; you enter the building through an exhibit hall at the fourth level and go down to the executive offices. I encountered Saarinen designs again during my travels through the New York Kennedy TWA terminal, Dulles Airport, St. Louis Arch, and Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. He was just so versatile in design, use of materials, planning and stimulation of emotions from his designs. We should probably invite his father, Eliel Saarinen, too, to see the interplay between father and son, both creative geniuses.”

Leigh Gates, Exhibit Host – Ray and Charles Earnes

“I would have loved to have had dinner and a conversations with the husband and wife design pioneers Ray and Charles Earnes. Although they were known primarily as designers of furniture, they designed their home and studio in the Pacific Palisades, California, called the Case Study House 8, which is a milestone of modern architecture. I think they would have imaginative and colorful observations about life and design, as well as architecture.”

Ed McDevitt, Class of 2010 – Carter Manny

“I would seriously love to have dinner with the late Carter Manny (1918-2017).

He was instrumental in the acquisition of Marc Chagall’s The Four Seasons, installed at First National (later Chase) Plaza in 1974 and in the acquisition and installation of Alexander Calder’s Flamingo at Federal Plaza, He engineered the circus parade celebrating the installation of Flamingo and Calder’s The Universe at Sears Tower, also in 1974 and was heavily involved in the addition of The Picasso at Daley Plaza and in keeping Chicago from losing Miro’s The Sun, The Moon, One Star (“Miro’s Chicago”) at the Brunswick Building, later the Cook County Office Building across from Daley Plaza.

The totally fascinating stories of his involvement in Chicago modern architecture, its civic institutions, and the public art we all revere are recorded in the Franz Schulze interview in the Chicago Architects Oral History Project which can be found in the Art Institute’s Ryerson and Burnham Archives at https://digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/caohp/id/8196.

Having read the entire transcript of that interview, I came away with dozens of questions I’d love to have asked him. So a dinner with this man, who knew literally everyone of consequence in Chicago, never mind around the world, would have been wonderful – as long as I could have scheduled multiple additional meetings (yes, I would try to do that).”

Mary Brugliera, Class of 1995 – Barry Byrne and Bertrand Goldberg

“I have met two of our famous  Chicago architects: Barry Byrne who lived in Evanston and whom a close friend of mine worked for for several decades, and Bertrand Goldberg, whom I met once very briefly at a then CAF gathering.  So I guess it would be fun to have both of them over for dinner.”

Virginia Gerst, Class of 2007 – William Le Baron Jenney

“That is an easy one. William  Le Baron Jenney. He was a raconteur of renown, and a lover of good food and wine. He often strode around his office with a brace of birds sling over his back he was taking home for dinner. Plus, I could ask him if the story about the birdcage really is true.”

David Matenaer, Class of 2010 – Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root

“I’d like to invite Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root for a discussion about the design and construction of the Rookery and the Monadnock buildings. It would be interesting to hear them talk about working with the Brooks brothers, the challenges presented by the two sites, and the Brookses’ evolving design requirements. I’d like to hear Mr. Root talk about the challenges he faced in designing these buildings, his hopes and dreams for their creation, along with the artistic and architectural sources for his ideas.”

David Ferguson, Docent Trainee – Daniel Burnham and associates

“An interesting challenge; so many candidates, so few seats at the table.  While I can think of so many I would love to dine with, I think my first choice would be a Daniel Burnham party.  So, without further ado, the guest list:

Daniel H. Burnham – arguably, Chicago’s most famous architect;

Hubert & Daniel Jr. – his sons and worthy architects in their own right (C&C Building, anyone?)

John W. Root & Ernest Graham – his partners and pillars of Chicago’s architectural history;

Charles B. Atwood – the troubled genius behind the Reliance Building;

William LeBaron Jenney – his first boss and the father of the skyscraper; and,

Edward H. Bennett – his collaborator on the Plan of Chicago.

Now, the menu …”

Lena Hansson, Class of 1991 – Glenn Murcutt

“Australia’s so far only Pritzker Prize winning architect.

During CAF’s trip to Australia about ten years ago, we had the opportunity to share several meals with him and I could have shared many more.”