FEATURE STORY - Partners for Sacred Places

RICHARD DRIEHAUS INTERVIEW (cont.)
but…
RD: In the 1970s, I wanted to open up a bar/restaurant in
Chicago on the southwest side. I started collecting artifacts
for that project like original posters, terra cotta, iron and
glasswork, and woodwork. At the time, restaurants were
changing from fern bars or big loft spaces, to Houlihan’s and
Bennigan’s and T.G.I. Friday’s where they used architectural
artifacts. These restaurants were larger and used more
industrial/commercial art like railroad signs, or pub signs.
I wanted to do something a little more upscale, more
The Notre Dame nuns taught us that
one of the things you had to do, if we
were successful, was to give back. . . .
By staying active in business and giving
back, you can help people in the long
term.
decorative arts.
GG: Which church did you attend as a child?
RD: That was St. Margaret of Scotland.
GG: It’s still open?
RD: It’s still open; you should [see it].
GG: Now, you went to school there too?
RD: Yeah, I went to grammar school there at the church.
High school…
GG: You went to St. Ignatius, right?
RD: Then I went to St. Ignatius, right. The church
was important. Everyone knew their parishes. [The
neighborhood was] split between St. Margaret and St.
Kilian’s. But you know, if I were one street over, I’d be in
another parish. It was pretty well defined. You could have
been on Racine Street on one side, the west side, went to St.
Margaret’s and the east side went to St. Kilian’s…which was
a little closer by about a half a block. I’m more classicist and
I’d like to keep it the way it was but how do you balance that
since the ethnic populations have changed? How do you still
keep the old sense of beauty and still have it relate today…
GG: Yeah, that’s a challenge.
RD: We should have a committee on aesthetics.
GG: Let’s go to this beautiful story of Calvary United
Methodist Church in Philadelphia. Do you remember this
story, Mr. Driehaus?
RD: I do. We bought these windows and then I found out
they’re from this church. There was an article in a small art
or antique magazine and then we gave them back. It was a
great location, just an older location.
GG: They host five different types of congregations there
now.
RD: Oh, that’s great.
GG: It is one of our poster-child types of stories.
RD: That’s terrific!
GG: We advocate multiple uses of older buildings with
shrinking congregations.
RD: So how to use it more culturally like they do in Prague or
something…
GG: Exactly! And for theaters. And then the church has an
effect on the neighborhood, because obviously people are
going to see the show so a little café can open nearby, a little
restaurant.
RD: It’s more European – better use of your historic
environment. Even though America is a young country, we
still have churches, some of our most beautiful elements
and built for our history. Hopefully we can continue to use
them…
If we don’t save them, we lose our sense of how we got here
and what we did. Our history with our grandparents, our
parents…we’re losing a connection to the past that will never
be replaced. There are enough things separating us from our
history that we need a physical sense of connection.
GG: Any particular reason why you started to give back so
much?
RD: Well, it’s what we were taught. The Notre Dame nuns
taught us that one of the things you had to do, if we were
successful, was to give back. It sounded like a good idea!
(laughing) If you let it all pile up like it’s fertilizer, it stinks
and you don’t have any friends. And then people start to
wonder why you are hoarding all that stuff. When you’re
working on certain values and truths that work, it is easy to
give. If you think of money like a river or resources, then it
is much easier to give. You can be very, very wealthy but also
paranoid. You might sell your company for a billion dollars,
then what are you going to do? By staying active in business
15 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Fall 2010