Richard H. Driehaus

Richard H. Driehaus, who was born and raised in Chicago, is a multifaceted individual. He has enjoyed enormous business success, earning a reputation within the investment management industry as an investor extraordinaire. In addition to his business career, he has focused his attention and energy on a wide variety of philanthropic and community-service projects, individually and through the efforts of The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Trusts.

Mr. Driehaus has a personal interest and commitment to design excellence and historic preservation that stems from a focus on the built environment. Mr. Driehaus believes in bringing progressive design principles to people and projects that otherwise could not afford them.

Mr. Driehaus’s historic preservation efforts have included the restoration of:

• the Richardsonian Romanesque-style Ransom Cable House in Chicago, Illinois, designed in 1886 by prominent Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb of Cobb & Frost. Since 1994 it has served as the headquarters of Driehaus Capital Management LLC;
• the award-winning restoration of a 36-acre 1905 Georgian Revival-style estate in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge;
• his Victorian-style home in Nantucket, which was originally constructed in 1877; and
• a Queen Anne-style residence in Chicago, which dates from 1887. The majority of the site is covered by two masonry structures: the original house built in the Queen Anne style and the coach house built in the 1920s.

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation has made major contributions for the restoration of Old St. Patrick’s Church and St. Ignatius High School in Chicago. Mr. Driehaus is also involved in the activities of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Landmarks Illinois, the Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation, and several preservation organizations in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has been involved in the preservation and restoration of historic homes in the Bronzeville and Prairie Avenue districts of Chicago, and with a variety of religious-oriented restoration projects.

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation has promoted excellence in design by sponsoring an award for excellence in community design through a design competition for a campus center building at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and by funding Herman Driehaus scholarships at IIT for five years. Other Foundation activities have included a design competition to produce universally accessible designs for the Chicago Public Schools, the development of design alternatives for mixed-income housing in Chicago, award sponsorship for nonprofit housing design and support of design programs, both of these at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Architecture and the Arts.

Mr. Driehaus’s interest in this area extends beyond bricks-and-mortar projects. The Foundation has funded several landscape and greening efforts in the city of Chicago, including a design competition for the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park, the restoration of the Caldwell Lily Pool in Lincoln Park, and the restoration and programs of the Garfield Park Conservatory.

Through the University of Notre Dame and his Trusts, Mr. Driehaus has helped establish two significant, international architectural awards. The Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture, awarded annually, grants $200,000 to an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution or achieved great success in the field of classical architecture. The Henry Hope Reed Award grants $50,000 to an influential supporter of the classical architecture movement.

From economic opportunity initiatives for people living in poverty, to support of the performing and visual arts, to historic preservation and environmental restoration, countless people and organizations have been beneficiaries of the generosity of Richard H. Driehaus.