World-Renowned Architect From Birmingham Dies In Car Crash

BIRMINGHAM, MI – World-famous architect Irving Tobocman, known for his designs on the metropolitan Detroit landscape and beyond, died in a two-vehicle crash on Friday, Nov. 10. Police say that his car was hit by a Jeep driven by a 16-year-old Bloomfield Hills girl

On Monday, Tobocman’s family, including his grown daughter Susan from New York and grown son David from Los Angeles, gathered at his Birmingham home, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

“He worked until the day he died,” Susan Tobocman said. “He designed over 400 buildings in California, New York, Texas, Florida, Canada, India and other places. He was truly a giant in his field.”

As an architect, he worked with pencil and paper, not by computer, his children said, and followed the technique of Frank Lloyd Wright, involving every detail from landscapes to cabinets, according the article. He was also a student of the Bauhaus Movement, the article noted.

“He always said a key understanding of proportion and materials was the essence of his designs,” David Tobocman said. “Homes were his specialty, but he also designed stores and restaurants and commercial buildings, synagogues and large apartment complexes.”

Police reports indicate that Tobocman was driving his car on Lone Pine Road in Bloomfield Township when the teen-aged girl, driving north on Telegraph Road, crashed into his car, according to multiple media reports. Police say the girl ran a red light. She and another 16-year-old girl were injured in the crash, as well, and taken to a nearby hospital.

A funeral for Tobocman will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield. Interment will be at Machpelah Cemetery.

>>>> Read the full article in the Detroit Free Press.

Image used with permission of Ira Kaufman Chapel