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Biographical Summary
Laurence (Larry) Ogden Booth was born in 1936 in Chicago, Illinois.
He recieved a B.A. from Stanford in 1953 and studied architecture
at Harvard before receiving his B. Arch. from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in 1960. After graduating from MIT and
completing military duty in Germany, Booth returned to Chicago
to join the office of Stanley Tigerman in 1964. Booth and James
Nagle, also in Tigerman's office, left to open their own firm
in 1966. During the 1970s, Booth joined the "Chicago Seven,"
a diverse group of architects that held a series of influential
exhibitions and symposia to encourage new approaches to architecture
in Chicago. He split from Nagle in 1981 to open his firm, Booth
Hansen Associates. Booth has been a visiting lecturer and critic
at numerous universities and was elected to the College of Fellows
of the American Institute of Architects in 1980.
Interview Highlights
Booth speaks about his education at Stanford and impressions of
California modernism; studying at Harvard and MIT; military service
and travels in Europe; working for Stanley Tigerman; starting
his own firm with Jim Nagle; early architectural projects; organizing
the Chicago Seven; exhibitions of the Chicago Seven; work in the
firm of Booth & Nagle; revival of the Chicago Architectural
Club; founding Booth Hansen Associates; ideas and opinions.
Perspective view, "Late Entries to the Chicago Tribune
Tower" Competition, 1980. Department of Architecture, The
Art Institute of Chicago.
Elevation rendering, 320 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 1981. Department
of Architecture, The Art Institute of Chicago.
Interview Excerpt
"I was just sitting there one day and Stanley [Tigerman]
called up and said, "We're going to have a meeting tonight.
Come over." So I went over and it was Ben Weese, Stuart Cohen,
Stanley, and I. I think that Stanley just needed some kind of
front. Of course we were all kind of anti-Miesian. Stanley knew
that I was not a Miesian, and Stuart had just come from Cornell
and was filled with a historical, stylistic approach to architecture.
Stanley is a street-fighter and he was looking for a fight. Ben
was angry, as usual, at everything. We made a critical mass of
architects, but Stanley did all the work [for the exhibition,
"Chicago Architects,"] and Stuart wrote the essay. We
got John Massey's group to do the installation and the design
of the show, the mounting and the stands and all that. When "One
Hundred Years of Architecture in Chicago" opened at the MCA,
we opened our show at the Time-Life building, which was right
around the corner. They'd let us use the lobby, through Ben Weese.
We set up this show in the lobby. Of course, Stanley called it
the Salon des Refusés. We were street-fighting." (p.
48)
Other Resources at The Art Institute of Chicago
Architectural drawings may be consulted by appointment in the
Department
of Architecture.
See the oral histories of other members of the Chicago Seven:
Tom Beeby, Stuart
Cohen, James Ingo
Freed, James Nagle,
Stanley Tigerman,
and Ben Weese;
see also the oral history of his former business partner, Jack
Hartray.
Funding for this oral history was provided by the Graham
Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Additional funding for the electronic presentation of this transcript
was provided by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council.
About the Chicago Architects Oral History Project
Department of Architecture • Ryerson & Burnham Archives
Send questions or comments to:
Ryerson & Burnham Archives, Chicago Architects Oral History Project
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