David Adler

David Adler (January 3, 1882 – September 27, 1949) was an American architect who largely 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 also had an older brother, Murray, who died in 1883 of diphtheria.) Adler attended Milwaukee public schools until age 16, when he left Wisconsin to enroll in the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Adler enrolled at Princeton University in 1900, studying art, architectural history and Greek. At Princeton, Adler designed a remodel for the Charter Club, an upperclassmen's eating club. The source of Adler's interest in architecture is uncertain. Adler began illustrating at Lawrenceville, drawing for school publications. He struggled at Princeton, but showed aptitude in his architecture class. After graduating in 1904, he traveled extensively, mostly to study the architecture of Europe. He studied for three semesters at Technische Universität München 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.