Alfonso Carrara collection

Alfonso Joseph Carrara, 90, died in Chicago in the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2012. Architect, poet, photographer, he was an artist who remained ever curious about the world around him. A veteran of WWII, he fought in the Italian campaign where he met his first wife, the late Ivonne Berti, from Gragnano (Lucca), the same town his parents, Giorgia and Cesare Carrara, left to come to Chicago where he was born on March 30, 1922. He lived his whole life in the building where he was born on Briar Place, the youngest of four. Carrara attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary, followed by the venerable School of Design, a pre-cursor to the Illinois Institute of Technology. As a young architect, he apprenticed with Keck and Keck in Chicago and then with Richard Neutra in Los Angeles. He was employed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Racine, WI, where he worked on the headquarters of S.C. Johnson Company. He worked for many years in the offices of Holabird and Root and also had his own practice. Carrara's work focused primarily on commercial buildings, including his favorite accomplishment, the headquarters of the American Dental Association on East Chicago Ave. Alfonso kept copious journals filled with drawings, captured ideas, poems, thoughts. He was always drawing or writing and has worked in multiple media. Including collage, pottery, print-making, photography and film. He remained a student of classic literature, poetry, politics, art and history. He loved his dog Homer and his cats Rossini and Giotto. In 1991 he married Gillion Skellenger Carrara, who survives him. (Source: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=alfonso-joseph-carrara&pid=159937480)