This creative project presents an overview of the architectural styles and history of the surviving commercial architecture of A.M. Strauss in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was the best known architect working in Fort Wayne during the period covered by this creative project, and his work is an excellent example of how national architectural trends affected architecture in Fort Wayne. His commercial architecture represents his best known and most significant work. He did far too many buildings to cover in a single thesis, and so his residential and institutional architecture in Fort Wayne remains for another study, as do his many works outside of Fort Wayne. This project also brings together in one treatment as much photographic, historical and architectural documentation of these buildings as possible — documentation now scattered across east central and northeast Indiana. It traces Strauss's stylistic changes from Spanish Eclecticism through Art Deco and Art Moderne to Modernism. The surviving buildings represent each of these styles and shifts in historical context. / Department of Architecture