Warren Richardson could design a building that was efficient and easy to use. He also could design a puppet theater so intricate, it was equipped with working lights and curtains.
When he designed his family’s home in Lombard, Mr. Richardson measured the site’s longitude and latitude before deciding where best to place the eaves of his roof, so that he could maximize sunlight in the winter and shield it from direct light in the summer.
“He really gave us an awareness of the kind of architecture that works with its environment, that good architecture is really in the beauty around you,” said his daughter Carolyn Hogan.
“It’s not just the building. It’s all-encompassing.”
Mr. Richardson, 90, an architect and World War II veteran, died Wednesday, Nov. 23, in Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove of complications from diabetes, his daughter said.
Mr. Richardson grew up on the South Side, the only child of a firefighter and a homemaker. He graduated from Hyde Park High School in 1932 and attended a five-year architectural and engineering program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, graduating with a bachelor’s of science degree in 1937.
At the university, Mr. Richardson participated in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and later served in the Army Corps of Engineers in World War II, attaining the rank of captain, his daughter said.
During the war, Mr. Richardson used his engineering skills to help build military airstrips. He was wounded by shrapnel while in a foxhole and was awarded the Purple Heart and the European/African/Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, his daughter said.
In January 1946, two months after leaving the service, Mr. Richardson married his wife, Hazelle Rayfield, whom he had met as a teenager in a church youth group. The couple wrote 900 letters to each other during the war, his daughter said.
“They fell in love, writing letters,” she said.
Mr. Richardson started his career with the Chicago firm Holabird & Root before the couple moved to Lombard, where Mr. Richardson also worked with the Austin Co. in Des Plaines, and later as an independent architect.
While somewhat shy and introverted, Mr. Richardson became an active citizen in Lombard, serving many years on the town’s Planning Commission, the District 44 school board, and the Zoning Board of Appeals. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects and twice was past president of the Construction Specifications Institute, which standardizes architectural design guidelines.
Mr. Richardson designed many office buildings and homes in Lombard and around the area, but he also took the time to build his children their own foosball table and puppet theater, complete with a stage and small red, white and blue lights, his daughter said.
Mr. Richardson was a fan of the arts. He took classes in memoir-writing and photography, and loved opera, his daughter said. After retiring as an architect about 30 years ago, Mr. Richardson and his wife took up square dancing.
“He really was creative and artistic. We feel like we got a lot of his creativity from him,” his daughter said. “He was always really excited when `[Die] Fledermaus’ was on Channel 11. We were like, `Dad, it’s just an opera.’ But he loved it.”
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Richardson is survived by his wife; sons Dale and Jan Robert; daughter Laurel Fleming; and nine grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday in First Church of Lombard, Maple Street Chapel, 220 S. Main St., Lombard.
———-
arozas@tribune.com
