The Richard Ahern papers consist of writings, correspondence, sketches and designs relating to his professional career as an architect, community planner, and educator. The collection provides insight into Ahern's creative and philosophical growth as a designer and planner, and provides snapshots of the growth of several Michigan communities in the 1960s and 1970s.
When they were donated, the Richard Ahern papers contained a large volume of newspaper clippings, publications, and similar research material that Ahern collected in preparation for each of his projects. Although only those documents that directly reflect Ahern's work were kept (a small fraction of the original volume), much of the overall organization schema was maintained.
The Richard Ahern papers are divided into five series: Personal, Early Designs and Sketches, Architecture, Planning, and Teaching.
Richard Ahern was born on the 4th of July 1927 in Medford, Massachusetts, and spent his early years in Washington, D.C. He was in the U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1946, after which he attended the University of Maryland for one year. Ahern then transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in architecture and received a B.S. in 1950. The next two years were spent studying at the Technische Hochschule in Austria, where he received a doctorate in technology. He apprenticed with two architectural firms in Washington, D.C. from 1952 to 1954, taught as an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Kent State University from 1954 to 1957, and worked for the City Plan Commission for the City of Detroit from 1957 to 1960, and again in 1962.
Ahern moved to Ann Arbor in 1962, following a year-long trip during which he visited approximately 20 countries in Asia. Soon after his arrival, he moved into a large unimproved studio space at 336 1/2 South State Street, where he would continue to live and work for the remaining 42 years of his life.
Professionally, Ahern worked on numerous projects that combined planning and architecture, such as a study of alternatives for the Ann Arbor Airport and designing residential communities for Clarkston and West Bloomfield. From 1966 to 1970, he also served as a planning consultant for the town of Bloomfield Hills, where he advocated for a housing style known as cluster court housing. He was also interested in planning for the central Ann Arbor area, where he envisioned "podium parking" and high-rise architecture as solutions to modern congestion problems.
Ahern also worked as an artist, producing thousands of drawings of buildings and places around the world during his lifetime, many of which were published as popular lithographs. From 1977 to 1981, he also taught architecture and planning at Lawrence Institute of Technology in Southfield.
Ahern was very interested in world peace, and he was active with groups including the Alliance for Democracy and the Green Party. His 1981 curriculum vitae listed "part-time, self-disciplined studies in Systems Philosophy, War and Peace, Ethics, etc." as ongoing since 1969.
In a 2002 article (included in Box 1 of the collection), Ahern described himself as "schizoergic," "an independent cuss," and "the world's oldest rock and roller," among other things. He died in 2004 at the age of 76, leaving behind a large volume of personal files on the numerous activities that engaged him throughout his life.
