After, the dean of architecture at MIT helped Tigerman get an apprenticeship with Chicago architect George Fred Keck.

Del Bianco doing suburban architecture; then with Milton Schwartz on the Executive House Hotel; and then as junior designer for Skidmore Owings & Merrill on the Air Force Academy.

[2] In 1958, Tigerman was officially an architect through his many years of apprenticeships, and he wrote to MIT, IIT, Yale, and Harvard to apply to their graduate programs, though he still did not have a bachelor's degree.

MIT and Harvard told him he would have to come back as an undergraduate, but after an interview with chairman Paul Rudolph, the Yale School of Architecture allowed Tigerman to enter a graduate program.

Tigerman's early skill with curves and perspective expanded to include organic shapes, bright color, topiary, and allegory.

[1] In 1994, Tigerman and the designer Eva L. Maddox co-founded Archeworks, a nonprofit institute in Chicago for students focused on urban problems.

[1] In addition to architecture, Tigerman designed products, such as tableware for the Swid Powell Company, a cookie jar, a coffee and tea set, and watches for Projects.

[1] Tigerman wrote several books, including Versus: An American Architect's Alternatives in 1982, a monograph of his work in 1989, and Architecture of Exile.

[2] They were married 40 years and lived at 900-910 North Lake Shore apartments designed by Mies van der Rohe on Chicago's lakefront.