Business & brands / Visual art / Architecture & design
A. Alfred Taubman
1924–2015 · shopping-mall developer, owner of Sotheby's, philanthropist
Pontiac-born developer who helped define the American indoor shopping mall, owned Sotheby's and gave large sums to Detroit-area art and education.
- Born
Pontiac, Michigan- Died
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
aged 91- Birth name
- Adolph Alfred Taubman
- Also known as
- Al Taubman
- Detroit years
- 1924–2015
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Taubman was born in Pontiac to Jewish immigrants; his father farmed fruit and built homes and Pontiac's first synagogue. After Pontiac Central High School he studied architecture at the University of Michigan and Lawrence Institute of Technology without graduating, and started a store-building business in Detroit in 1950 with a $5,000 loan. His company, later Taubman Centers, designed and ran upscale enclosed malls across the country, with layouts built to keep shoppers walking past every store; it moved its headquarters to Bloomfield Hills in 1986. In 1983 he bought the auction house Sotheby's and took it public, but in 2002 he was convicted of conspiring with Christie's to fix commissions and served about a year in prison. He gave some $141 million in Michigan, including to the University of Michigan's architecture college and medical research, the College for Creative Studies and the Detroit Institute of Arts. He is buried at Clover Hill Park.
Highlights
- Founded the Taubman Company in 1950; later Taubman Centers
- Bought Sotheby's in 1983
- Convicted in 2002 in the Sotheby's–Christie's price-fixing case
- About $141 million given to Michigan causes
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial
A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education
CCS's design campus in the restored Argonaut Building (former GM research building), named for him after his gift.
Buried here · 2015
Clover Hill Park Cemetery
The Jewish cemetery in Birmingham where he is buried.