Adler, Dankmar, 1844–1900, American architect who, as a partner of Louis Sullivan, was an important influence on modern American architecture. Born in Germany, he immigrated to the United States at the age of 10 and settled in Detroit, where he studied architecture and became a civil engineer; he later moved to Chicago and worked as a draftsman and architect. The partnership of Adler & Sullivan was formed in 1881, with the painstaking, technically adept Adler as engineering designer and administrator and Sullivan as planner and artist. The two were partners until 1895. During this period the firm designed such classic structures as the Auditorium Building, Chicago (1889), the Wainwright Building, St. Louis (1890), and the Guaranty Building, Buffalo, N.Y. (1895). Adler also designed a number of Chicago synagogues, e.g., the Isaiah Temple (1899).
See R. Nickel et al., The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan (2010).
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