Adler trained as a draftsman rather than in a school of architecture, working in Chicago from the 1860s and building a practice known for structural engineering and, above all, acoustics — the auditoriums he designed were prized for how their halls carried sound. His partnership with Louis Sullivan, formed in 1883, paired that engineering command with Sullivan's ornament and design sense: Adler worked out the steel framing and, at the Auditorium Building, the raked seating and adjustable ceiling that made its hall renowned, while Sullivan drew the surfaces. The partnership dissolved in 1895 after the 1893 financial panic emptied their order book, and Adler briefly left architecture for elevator engineering. He returned to independent practice with his sons and died in Chicago in 1900.
