"Ocean Liner" House Makes Chicago Daily News

The Inverness home and Don's business was established with "seed money" from his parents and from Arnold Dahlke, Don's father-in-law. Gunnar and Ebba Erickson, Don's parents, commissioned their son to design a home that they could live in and that Don could show to prospective clients.

Don left Talisen in 1951, and immediately proceeded to design the Inverness home, which, as family legend has it, he showed to Mr. Wright and Wright claimed the design to be his own. Undoubtedly, the design, Don's first architectural commission, was heavily influenced by Mr. Wright, but the design was Don's own. It would not be too many years later, that Don, in his late twenties, was designing award-winning homes which began to reflect his own unique architectural "stamp."

After residing in the Inverness home for about two years, the Erickson home was sold to David and Violet Gustafson in 1953. Featured in the "Chicago Daily News," in 1953 in an article entitled, "How Chicago Lives," the Gustafson's never did install a swimming pool. Instead, they commissioned Don to design and build a new home in 1957 in Winnetka, Illinois. Their new home was located at 1055 Starr Road, but was demolished in 2009, to make way for an addition to a neigboring home.

The "Ocean Liner" house is now listed for sale. See sidebar to this blog under "Don's First Architectural Creation," for more information.



The Architect, Don Erickson, in his office at EMMCO Stairs, Des Plaines, Illinois.

Please contact me, or provide comments on this page, if you would like to submit information that you may have on the work and/or its history. And, if you would like to contribute to championing the preservation of the Don Erickson Legacy, please email me at the address posted under my profile.

Don's First Architectural Creation - Now Listed for Sale

I just received word that the home that Don first designed and built for his parents, Ebba and Gunnar, circa 1951 is now listed for sale. Occupied by an attorney for many years, I met the owner and I know that the owner loved his Inverness home.

At this listing price, the home is a real "steal" for a collector. I will expound upon the home in my next post, plus provide clips about the home from the local press dating back to the early 1950's.

Please see sidebar, "Don's First Home," to the right of this link for a video about the home. For building watchers, the home is located at 871 Braeburn Road, Inverness, Illinois.

The McNeal Home Today

The McNeal home today...Like Grey Gardens, the Long Island home that had "gone to seed" from disrepair, this home has seen better days. One wonders what happened to the McNeals?

Photos courtesy of Richard Erickson


For photos of the home when built, please see April 14, 2010 post entitled, "The McNeal home."

Please contact me, or provide comments on this page, if you would like to submit information that you may have on the work and/or its history. And, if you would like to contribute to championing the preservation of the Don Erickson Legacy, please email me at the address posted under my profile.

Humble Beginnings

Death can lead to new beginnings. This was true for Anna Eriksson, Don’s grandmother. When Anna’s husband died, Anna’s six children, all of whom had immigrated to Chicago, paid for her ticket on a ship which traveled from Gothenberg, Sweden to New York. From New York, Anna traveled by train to Chicago where she resided with her children and their families. Anna died in 1932; she is buried at Rosehill Cemetery. Her grave site is close to the first wife of Anna’s son, Frits, and Anna’s grandchild, Olivia; mother and child were interred together. Anna’s family marked her grave with a marble headstone, one of the few marked graves among many graves similarly reserved for Chicago’s poor in one of the city’s oldest cemeteries.

It seems that where the family rested, in death, was as important as where they resided in life, for Gunnar and Ebba purchased three lots at Mount Emblem cemetery in Elmhurst, Illinois in the 1940’s. Gunnar and Ebba are interred close to Frits and Doris Erickson at Mount Emblem. Frits, Gunnar’s brother, was the best man at Gunnar’s wedding to Ebba while Doris was the maid-of-honor. The Erickson’s wedding, held on May 28, 1927, and was performed by a minister at Ebenezer Lutheran Church on Foster Avenue in Chicago, which, in turn, is located close to Rosehill. Presumably, the third grave lot was purchased for their only child, Don.

Pictured are Ebba and Gunnar at their wedding, surrounded by Doris and Frits.

However, Don, himself, chose a single grave lot in White Cemetery, a tiny cemetery off Cuba Road in Barrington which was established circa 1852. Don wanted to be near his home and property in Barrington which is about 1 ½ miles distance from White Cemetery. It was Don’s wish to be interred in a simple pine box hewed by a carpenter, a wish that may reflect his upbringing. Carpenters all, Don’s Uncle Gottfried Erickson operated a small factory in Chicago that built coffins for the soldiers who were felled during the war, and kitchen cabinets after the war ended. Like his “second father,” Mr. Wright, Don chose a simple cemetery, a place unadorned by anything but trees, a fence and old gravestones.

Unlike the simple markers used by his family members, Don’s grave is now marked with a marble Chinese foo lion, a mythical protector. The Chinese foo lion is usually paired with its mate. . . The foo lion, a creature that Don loved, is homage to the man who himself created magical homes for his clients, residences that had more than a bit of whimsy and adventure.

House of the Rising Sun

There are now two opportunities to own a Don Erickson home. Don's own home is listed for sale. Situated on 10 acres of land in picturesque Barrington, the home itself is in a private setting and comes with its own guest home, converted from a barn where Shirley and Don raised Arabian horses, and rode them on their land and in and around Barrington. See links on the side-bar of this blog.

The Richardson home, home to the late Mrs. Richardson and her former husband, CEO of Richardson Electronics, is located on Lake-Cook Road in Barrington. See link, "House of the Rising Sun."

"Floating hall" is similar to that used for the Playboy Pad in Johnsburg, Illinois. The Richardson house also features the use of chains from great ships, foreshadowing their use in Hilton's Indian Lakes Hotel.


Please contact me, or provide comments on this page, if you would like to submit information that you may have on the work and/or its history. And, if you would like to contribute to championing the preservation of the Don Erickson Legacy, please email me at the address posted under my profile.

Driving Innovation - IRI's Architect of Choice

At least one of Don’s clients was an entrepreneur and a visionary. John Malec and two other investors mortgaged their homes and started a new venture in 1979 and named their firm, Information Resources, Inc.

Today, IRI is one of the leading market research firms in the U.S., if not the world. Its’ competitor, The Nielsen Company, initially ignored the budding firm but bolstered by investments from the likes of Procter & Gamble, and a team of driven individuals, IRI was responsible for cutting into Nielsen’s market share and causing the dominant firm to stand up, take notice, and change the course of its own direction. The two firms found themselves in guerilla warfare for years, ambushing each other with innovative products which benefitted their clients, leading manufacturers of packaged-goods for consumers.

As quoted from the “Chicago Tribune:”

"IRI, a Chicago company that for 25 years has challenged ACNielsen for supremacy in the consumer market research arena. . .was an incubator for fresh ideas and the kind of people who could generate them.” Chicago Tribune, January 21, 2005.

Given IRI’s beginnings, it was fitting that John Malec, CEO, chose an innovative architect to select and build IRI’s new Chicago headquarters in 1982. Don and Mr. Malec selected an existing brick building to call as IRI’s new home, a building immediately across from the Chicago Northwestern train station, in a neighborhood on the fringe but “up and coming.”


The building was gutted, but the existing beams were left exposed and incorporated into the remodeling. Don designed an entranceway to the building that distinctively marked the new headquarters and invited visitors into a quiet environment which bespoke of the confidence of the firm, while hiding the bustling employee offices beyond where creative minds spun out new ideas and a team of dedicated, hard-working people set about the task of serving IRI’s clients.

The top floor of the building features an employee lunch room with skylights and a rectangular brick fountain which silences the noise of clattering plates and tongues.

Don was the architect of choice for other leaders at IRI, including Gian Fulgoni who assumed the CEO role when John left IRI to create other new ventures. Gian is the current owner of a home influenced by Don.

And, while IRI has experienced significant ownership and personnel changes since its creation in 1979, its new owner, Symphony Technology Group still calls the headquarters at 150 N. Clinton Avenue in Chicago “home.” The building fosters the spirit of the firm, that of continued innovation.

Please contact me, or provide comments on this page, if you would like to submit information that you may have on the work and/or its history. And, if you would like to contribute to championing the preservation of the Don Erickson Legacy, please email me at the address posted under my profile.