Interior designer and art collector Larry Deutsch ran his Near North Side design firm for close to 35 years with an adept touch for educating his clients and working within their budgets.
“His clients really appreciated him,” said Stuart Shayman, an architect who worked closely with Deutsch. “He was very passionate about what he did — and about his profession — and I would say he was pretty close to being a perfectionist. If things didn’t go right, he could roll with it but he wanted to get as close as he could.”
Deutsch, 84, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease on June 28 at his home in Tucson, Arizona, said his daughter Cathy. He had been a Tucson resident since 2000 after previously living in Chicago and Highland Park.
Born Larry Nathan Deutsch in Plainfield, New Jersey, Deutsch grew up in Tucson and received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in painting from the University of Arizona in 1963.
He worked in San Diego at a retail furniture store before moving to Chicago in 1965 with his then-wife, real estate agent Julie Deutsch. He briefly worked for interior designer Evelyn Mayer before launching Larry N. Deutsch Interiors Ltd. in 1966.
Deutsch’s expertise in interior design was matched by a passion for architecture, his daughter said. “My dad never met a wall he didn’t want to move,” she said. “He would move the wall around until he had a great canvas, and then he would cover the wall with art. Many of his clients were art collectors.”
Deutsch’s work largely involved redesigning clients’ homes, but on occasion, he would provide design work for corporate headquarters offices. In 1976, the Tribune’s Aaron Gold spotlighted Deutsch’s “striking and unusual interior design work” for a 102-foot yacht that was featured in Architectural Digest magazine. The boat was owned by then-Exchange National Bank chairman Ira Kaufman and his wife, Audrey.
“The boat was very ugly,” Deutsch recalled to the Tribune in 1988. “It had dark mahogany beams and trim, Mediterranean and Chinese furniture. It needed to be revitalized. The Kaufmans wanted style, but they wanted something comfortable enough so you wouldn’t feel that you couldn’t touch things when you walked in. They wanted the boat to be dramatic, open but practical and real.”
However, much of Deutsch’s design work was not accompanied by exorbitant price tags for clients. Practical and attentive to his clients’ budgets, he was a fan of any number of moves to get them what they needed. For instance, in a 1981 Tribune article, he termed room additions “extravagantly practical,” and a convenient way to allow homeowners to get more of what they wanted without having to move.
“Most people are happy where they live. They’re just not happy with their house the way it is,” he told the Tribune.
Laura Michaud, a Chicago-area resident and client, recalled Deutsch as a designer with a “great eye” who also excelled at educating his clients. Deutsch decorated Michaud’s parents’ home, her own home and the homes of one of her brothers.
“I’ve never worked with anybody who has been as thorough and with (such) a great eye,” she said. “He also knew art extraordinarily well.”
Another Chicago-area client, Diane Malzahn, recalled Deutsch’s passion for “imparting his knowledge to you.”
“When we would go, let’s say, shopping at the Merchandise Mart, he was very explanatory about fabrics and the comfort of a chair. He was very into actually making sure that what you were going to sit in was something that you were going to be comfortable with for a long time,” Malzahn said. “He always talked about the quality of the products that he would recommend. When we look around (our house), we see Larry Deutsch in everything we look at, every day. It makes us always remember him.”
In the 1980s, Deutsch correctly predicted that the once down-trodden River North neighborhood was on the cusp of thriving. He put his money where his mouth was, investing in buildings in the 700 block of North Wells Street, including one that housed his business. He later moved his business to a space in the 300 block of West Huron Street, in the 1980s.
Deutsch and his future husband, Bill Parker, collaborated for many years, and Deutsch’s firm eventually was renamed Deutsch/Parker Design. After dividing their time between Chicago and Tucson for many years, the couple made Tucson their primary residence around 2000. They continued to have a place in Lakeview until about 2021, however, and the following year, they bought a condominium unit in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Although Deutsch considered himself retired sometime after moving to Tucson, he continued taking on design clients until about two years ago, Parker said.
Deutsch was an avid art collector who inspired many clients to become art collectors as well, his daughter said. In the 1980s, he collected photographs, including ones taken by noted photographers Robert Mapplethorpe, Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus. Later, he collected 17th and 18th century porcelain. Most recently, he had become an enthusiast of Native American pottery.
More Top Picks Best Bass Traps For Home Studios
In addition to his husband and daughter, Deutsch is survived by two other daughters, Loren and Leigh; a stepdaughter, Julie McGill; a stepson, John Parker; four grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; and his former wife, Julie Deutsch.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.