In 1995 MAK undertook the restoration of the Schindler-designed Mackey Apartments (1939), which is now the residential quarters of the MAK Artists and Architects in Residence Program. Continuing a tradition of MAK occupying each of its Schindler buildings, the Fitzpatrick-Leland House will contain the centerErs"s Urban Future Initiative, a new program funded by the U.S. Department of Statears"s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that provides two-month residences to cultural researchers.
Rudolf Michael Schindler was born on September 10, 1887, to a middle class family in Vienna, Austria. His father was a wood and metal craftsman and an importer; his mother was a dressmaker. He attended the Imperial and Royal High School, from 1899 to 1906, and enrolled in the Wagnersschule of Vienna Polytechnic University, being graduated in 1911 with a degree in architecture.
In Vienna, Schindler acquired experience in the firm of Hans Mayr and Theodore Mayer, working there from September 1911 to February 1914. Schindler then moved to Chicago to work in the firm of Ottenheimer, Stern, and Reichert (OSR), accepting a cut in pay to be in that progressive American city, which was the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. He found New York, which he visited along the way, to be crowded, unattractive, and commercial. Chicago was more appealing to him, however, with less congestion and providing access to the architectural work of Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Wright was able to hire Schindler after obtaining the commission for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, a major project that would keep the architect in Japan for several years. Schindler's role was to continue Wright's American operations in his absence, working out of Wright's Oak Park studio. In 1919, Schindler met and married Pauline Gibling (1893–1977) and in 1920 Wright summoned him to Los Angeles to work on the Barnsdall House.
