Designing Bridges to Burn

After a series of self-defeating trials, Stanley Tigerman arrived at the portal beyond which was architecture theory and practice. The title says it all, Designing Bridges to Burn is about an unnecessarily long and circuitous journey towards professional standing in a field that only after World War II could countenance the way in which the author approached a profession that before was only available to those to the manor born. Designing Bridges to Burn is filled with often hilarious, sometimes poignant stories about the last quarter of the 20th century of American architecture with its architects’ conceits, foibles and missteps that only an outsider could have engaged in.


Stanley Tigerman: Stanley Tigerman received both his architectural degrees from Yale University in 1960 & 1961. AA Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago for twenty-one years, he also served as Director of the School of Architecture for eight years. Founder of the Chicago Architectural Club as well as Co-Founder and (former) Director of ARCHEWORKS, a socially oriented design laboratory (1994), Tigerman remains the “architectural voice and conscience” of Chicago as a commentator on, and critic of, his city’s architecture, fighting to save historic buildings, criticizing bad architecture, condemning public inertia and working with community activists and the local AIA to achieve affordable housing, among other goals.