Paul Schweikher Collection

Paul Schweikher was born in Denver, Colorado on July 28, 1903. His parents were both musicians. Frederick Schweikher, his father, was Dean of Music at the University of Denver. He attended high school in Denver and studied engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Following his marriage to Dorothy Miller of Denver, he moved to Chicago, Illinois to study at The Art Institute of Chicago.

While in Chicago, Schweikher worked for over two years at the architectural firm Lowe & Bollenbacher, where he worked his way up from clerk to construction supervisor. He also worked as a draftsman for noted architect David Adler, to whom he gave credit for instilling his sense of proportion and design. In 1924-1925, Schweikher studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology before transferring to Yale University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in architecture in 1929. While at Yale, he won a travelling fellowship which allowed him extended study of architecture in Europe.

After completion of his degree from Yale, Schweikher returned to Chicago in 1930 and went into private architectural practice. He collaborated with architects George Fred Keck and Phillip Maher before joining the firm Lamb and Elting (a partnership of architects Theodore Lamb and Winston Elting) in 1932 to form the firm Schweikher, Lamb and Elting, where Schweikher worked from 1932 to 1942. During World War II, Schweikher served in the United States Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

After the war, Schweikher returned to Chicago and resumed his professional partnership with Winston Elting in the firm and Schweikher and Elting (1945-1953) before accepting an offer to become chairman of the Yale University School of Architecture in 1953. In 1956, Schweikher became the head of the Department of Architecture at Carnegie Institute of Technology (later re-named Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

During his academic career, Schweikher continued to maintain a private architectural practice in New Haven, Connecticut (while at Yale University) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (while at Carnegie). He established a reputation as a skilled modernist architect of churches, schools, public buildings, and residences. He retired from academia in 1969 and the following year moved to Sedona, Arizona and continued his private architectural practice. Paul Schweikher died in Phoenix on December 23, 1997, survived by a son, Paul.